WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
by Donna McIntosh
Summary: What might have happened if Jack hadn't died.


Title: WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Author: Donna McIntosh

Email: 

Fandom: Brokeback Mountain

Genre: Slash

Warning: None

Rating: NC – 17 FRAO

Summary: If Jack hadn't died, I'd like to think that some of this is what might have happened.

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Ennis threw another log on the fire and looked at his watch again. Jack should be there by now. He listened carefully to see if he heard a truck coming. He reminded himself that he was early and that Jack would be along shortly. Jack had a lot father to drive than he did. He was probably tired and stopped for something to eat. He paced out to the river's edge and stood and watched it for several minutes. He'll be here, he told himself. Just give him time.

"I wish I knew how to quit you!" The words kept echoing in his head. But that was months ago when they had that fight – last spring. He wouldn't still be mad. They had straightened everything out before they parted – hadn't they? He picked up a branch and broke it into smaller pieces for the fire. He'll be here any minute. He opened another beer and took a good long drink. He looked at his watch again. "Dammit, Jack! Where the hell are you?" He muttered and continued his pacing.

Finally, finally he heard the truck. It was Jack's truck. I had to be! He stood and watched the road way and heaved a sigh of relief when he got a glimpse of Jack's truck and that smiling face looking out at him.

"Hey, Cowboy! You beat me here!" Jack said as he climbed down out of his truck. He barely got the door closed when Ennis was all over him. Holding him, kissing him, whispering sweet things, telling him how much he missed him.

"What's goin' on here? You're actin' like you didn't think I was gonna come?" Jack held him back at arms length.

"I was scared that maybe you wouldn't. You was kinda mad at me last time we met."

"Oh Ennis." He took him in his arms and hugged him tight. "I wasn't really mad at you. I was just mad at the situation we was in. I just HATE that we don't get to see each other more is all."

"Jack … I been thinkin'. We said a lot of stuff that day and I'm thinkin' maybe you was right."

"Of course I was right. I'm always right … right about what?" Jack teased.

"All this … misery we got goin' on here … it's all because of me. I been makin' us both miserable."

"Ennis, it ain't your fault. It's just the way you was brung up, and seein' that body put a scare in you that you just can't get around. I hate it but I understand it."

"I want to though, Jack. I really do. You think maybe we could talk about … stuff?"

"Well sure we can. You know that. We can talk about anything you want. You want to get the tent set up first them we can talk all night if you want to."

"I'd like that." Ennis said with a little smile. "Let me give you a hand there." They unloaded Jack's truck and in no time had the little tent up and were sitting by the campfire, their lawn chairs up close together.

"What's you got on your mind, Ennis?" Jack lit a smoke and drew in deep on it.

"You and me. I wanna fix things. I been thinkin' about it since May."

"Thinkin' about what?"

"How we can fix everythin' – if you still want to." Ennis pulled his chair around so he was in front of Jack, their knees touching.

"I'd be interested in hearin' how you think we could fix things." Jack was full on curious now.

"There ain't but one way, Jack. You was right. I guess you been right all along. I was just too scared to see it."

"Go on." Jack flipped his cigarette into the fire and leaned forward.

"You and me. It's like you always said. We belong together."

"Uh huh … and?"

"And I think you're right. I think we should … if you still want to and all?"

"Should …?"

"Be together." Ennis struggled for the words.

"Like now, you mean?"

"Like … a place of our own." Ennis swallowed hard, cleared his throat and went on. "Jack, I sold my horses. I got two thousand dollars for 'em. Out at the stables where I was keepin' 'em … the owner's daughter got real attached to my mare. I knew the price I was askin' was steep but I knew he had the money and I knew she would be broken hearted if I sold them. She always comes around when I'm there seein' to 'em and sayin' what a fine horse I had. I told her I was fixin' to sell the both of them and that I'd try and find real nice people to take them as a pair since they been together so long. She begged me not to leave and she ran to her Daddy. He come out and we talked. I finally came right out and told him I needed two thousand for the pair. He hemmed and hawed a bit but his girl was beggin' and pleadin' and he gave in. Just pulled out his check book and wrote me out a check. I know it ain't a lot but it's somethin'."

"Ennis, what're you sayin' here?" Jack grabbed onto Ennis' arms.

"I'm sayin' you was right. I'm sayin' I sold my horses. I'm sayin' … let's find us a place."

Jack stood up and slapped himself in the face with both hands. "I'm dreamin'! I know I'm just dreamin' again!"

"No, Jack, you ain't dreamin'. Cut that out!" He caught Jack's hands in his. "You still wanna do this? You think we really can? I mean … without havin' to fight for our lives every single day?"

A thousand things were racing through Jack's mind and all he could think of to do was lean his head back and let out a war-hoop that put the coyotes to howling. He grabbed Ennis then, "You mean it? You serious? You're ready to get a place with me?"

"I ain't gonna lie to you, Jack. I'm scared to death and probably always will be but we gotta fix this. We need to be together."

"I been tellin' you that for near twenty years now!"

"I know, I know and you been right. I guess it took us yellin' at each other for me to realize that I could lose you. I don't wanna lose you, Jack. And I don't want you goin' a Mexico or gettin' shot sneakin' around seein' folks you shouldn't be seein'. 'Cause, I kinda feel like … well … like you belong to me."

"Oh Ennis!" He hugged him tight. "You're the only one I want. The one I always wanted ever since Brokeback. Even when I was with someone else I was wishin' it was you."

"Well, I'm sayin' here and now, if you still wanna try … I think we should."

Jack held him tight. He couldn't speak for several moments and speech wasn't really necessary right then. They just needed to stand there and hold each other. Jack kept mumbling "I can't believe it" and Ennis kept repeating, "I can't lose you, Jack. I can't lose you."

"When? When can we do this?"

"Any time you want. How about in the mornin'? I don't really want to break camp right now." Ennis grinned at him.

Jack grinned and pulled him down into the tent. They slept very little and were up at the crack of dawn fixing coffee and oat meal over their fire.

"I hate that we'll have to drive back alone. We still need to talk more and decide things." Ennis said.

"We're only about an hour out of Lander. We'll stop there and find us a place to put a hitch on the front of your truck. I've got one on the back of mine so once we get your truck fixed up, we can pull it and talk all we want."

"Good idea. I'd like that."

They broke camp and stowed their gear. "You got any preference where you want to live?" Jack asked.

"Just NOT in Riverton. I'd like to stay in Wyomin' if that's Ok with you but if you want to go outta state, that's be Ok I guess – as long as it ain't Texas."

"Oh hell no! I ain't no Texan. All I ever thought about since I settled down there was how much I'd rather be livin' back in Wyomin' again. I was thinkin' about Sheridan. It's beautiful country up there and the town is big enough so that we could get jobs there doin' somethin' or other until we got the ranch up and runnin'. You ever been to Sheridan?"

"Uh huh. Years ago. When K.E. and me worked up in Worland. We went huntin' up near there and stayed in Sheridan. It's a good sized town – twice the size of Riverton but only half the size of Laramie or Cheyenne. Good choice."

"That's what I was thinkin'. If we found a place somewhere, say about twenty or thirty miles out, we could drive back and forth into town easy and a town that size should have work."

"Well let's get on the road then and on the way to Lander. It ain't that big a place but we should be able to find someone who can fix me up with a hitch."

They gave each other one last lingering hug and each climbed into his truck and headed out. They made good time and shortly after they arrived they found someone to sell them a hitch and to install it. They were on the road again in less than an hour.

"So we stop in Riverton long enough to pick up the rest of your things and then we can head north?" Jack asked.

"Uh huh. Won't take long – I ain't got that much. Just a few things outta my trailer then I can turn my keys in to the manager. I'll need to stop in town at the bank and get my money. I'll need to make a quick run over to Alma's to give her the last two month's child support."

"While you're doin' that, I'll make my phone call to Lureen."

"She gonna give you any trouble?"

"Nah – she ain't like that. We ain't never had no big romance between us. We was really more good friends than anythin' else."

"I think they call that 'friends with benefits'." Ennis said with a grin.

"Yeah but I got her pregnant so I had to do the right thing."

"You did and I'm proud of you for it. What about Bobby? How you think he'll take it?"

"He's away at that fancy-assed school in Switzerland. He won't even know about it till he comes back to Texas next summer."

"Why you go and send him so far away for? They don't have good schools in Texas?"

"Yeah they do. Perfectly good schools but Lureen's daddy made a reservation for him the day he was born and he's payin' for it. Lureen says Bobby loved it when she took him over to look at the place. I've talked to him and he seems to really enjoy it there."

"It's a hell of a long ways away though."

"It is for a fact." Jack agreed as they pulled up into Ennis' trailer court and got out.

Ennis unlocked the door and they went in. "You can use the phone there by the bed to make your calls."

"Thanks. You gonna be Ok? I mean goin' to see Alma?"

"Before, all I ever wanted to do after seein' Alma was to go out and get drunk. This time though, I'll be hurryin' back here 'cause I know you're here waitin' for me."

"You want me to go with you?"

"Nah – it's for me to do and I'll do it."

"You gonna be Ok with leavin' Jenny? I know that Junior has moved off and all."

"Jenny and me, we was never very close. She looks more like me but she's all Alma's girl. They been tight as ticks for as long as I can remember. She don't think much of her Pa. I reckon Alma had a lot to do with that."

"I'm sorry, Cowboy."

"Ain't nothin' to be sorry about. I did the best with her I could do; just like I done with Junior but we never really got on like me and Junior."

"You could always come visit with them."

"Sure enough," Ennis agreed, "You be all right here till I get back? You need a beer or somethin' there's some in the fridge. Help yourself. I'll be back quick as I can."

"I'll be fine. You just take it easy and get back here so we can get on the road." They went out and un-hitched Ennis' truck and he took off for town. Jack went back inside and made his call to Lureen.

"Twist residence?" Lureen answered the phone.

"Lureen, honey, it's me. I need to talk to you. You got some free time?"

"Sure I do, Jack. What is it – somethin' wrong? You didn't wreck your truck did you? You never called me from one of your huntin' trips before."

"No, it's nothin' like that. I'm fine and I didn't have no wreck. I just spent a lot of time thinkin' while I was drivin' up here and I made some decisions."

"What kind of decisions? About what?"

"About us, Lureen. About our lives and how we been livin'."

"Is this that ranch thing again? Jack, I told you before – if you want a ranch, I'll get you one. There's plenty of ranches right here at home. It's Texas for God's sake!"

"Lureen, that's just it – Texas is your home. It ain't mine."

"Jack, you told me yourself how much you hated that place you lived in up there. Now you sayin' you want to move up there? There's no way in hell I'm movin' to Wyomin'. I'm a Texas girl, born and bred!"

"What I hated was livin' with my Pa and livin' in Lightnin' Flat – Wyomin' a big state. I can find a place far enough away from them so they won't be a bother."

"Texas is far away from them."

"Texas ain't my home, Wyomin' is."

"I'm not movin', Jack. Childress is my home. I was born in this very house and my mother before me. I thought you liked this house? You want to re-do your room, your study? I told you, you could fix it up any way you want."

"Lureen, you've been a good wife to me and you're a wonderful Momma to Bobby – that ain't never been the point."

"Well what is the point then? You got some gal up there you're wantin' to play house with?"

"No, honey, it ain't nothin' like that. I know you're a Texas gal, and always will be but that's the same way that I feel about Wyomin. It's in my blood. I'm a Wyomin' boy. The only time I ever feel comfortable, like I'm really home, is when I'm up here in the mountains. This is where I belong. It's where I want to live."

"I ain't movin' to Wyomin', Jack. With Daddy retired now and Momma in the nursin' home, that leaves me the runnin' of the business by myself. I couldn't leave here even if I wanted to and I don't want to."

"I figured that's what you'd say and I'm sorry as I can be but I been livin' the life you wanted all these years. I think it's time now for me to start livin' the life I always wanted. I ain't gettin' any younger and if I'm gonna have my dream, I need to do it know while I'm still young and strong enough to make a go of somethin'. Lureen, the last thing I'd wanna do in this world is hurt you after you've been so good to me all these years but I think it's time we called it quits."

The line was dead silent for a spell.

"You askin' me for a divorce, Jack?"

"I think it's time. You know you'll always have a special place in my heart, Lureen, but I ain't that young bull rider no more. I always went along with whatever you wanted to do but it's time now for me to go after my dream instead of drinkin' myself half to death there in Texas where I don't belong."

"Is THAT why you been drinkin' so much? I always thought it was because I was the one bringin' in most of the money – thought you resented that."

"No way, honey. You always been the smartest one and the one that worked the hardest. And that was because you loved the work that you was doin' and the people you was workin' with. Runnin' your daddy's place was your dream and you took hold of it and made it somethin' special, somethin' to be real proud of. That's what I'm gonna do now. I'm gonna make my dream come true. I'm gonna find me a place up here and I'm gonna work my ass off and I'll make a go of it. That's what I been wantin' all my life, Lureen, a place of my own, a place I can fix up and take care of and run just like you're runnin' your daddy's business."

"You could still do that and fly back here weekends."

"No, honey, I couldn't. There wouldn't be no money for flyin' back and forth to Texas all the time."

"Well, hell, Jack. I got the money for air-fare."

"I don't want your money, Lureen. I wanna make my own money, and live on what I make and there won't be no money for flyin'."

"So you think divorce is the only solution?"

"Right now I think it's our best option. Once I got back home up here in Wyomin' I knew I could never bring myself to go back down to Texas again. This is where I belong and this is where I'm stayin'."

"Well, all right, Jack, if that's what you want. Listen, I gotta go. I'm supposed to meet the girls at the club for lunch. I'll call Barrington first thing in the mornin' and see if he handles divorces. You got some number where I can call and let you know what's goin' on?"

"Not yet. Soon as I do, I'll let you know. I'll probably just get myself a PO box once I get me a place. I'll either call you or write and let you know how to get in touch with me."

"You ain't never comin' back? What about Bobby?"

"Oh, I'll come back to see Bobby. You'll let me know when he comes home from school?"

"Well that won't be until next summer. I can explain things to him next time I talk with him."

"That'd be good. I'd appreciate that, Lureen."

"You sure you wanna do this, Jack? I mean on a permanent basis?"

"I never been more sure of anythin' in my life. This is my dream, Lureen, and I gotta do it or I'll spend the rest of my life regrettin' it."

"Ok then. I'll see to the legal stuff and get you the paperwork soon as you get me an address."

"Thank you, Lureen."

"You're welcome, Jack. In the mean time – if you change your mind, give me a call. I can always stop the paperwork from goin' through."

"I won't be changin' my mind. This is what I need to be doin' and I'm gonna do it."

"You'll get in touch as soon as you get that PO box?"

"I will. You go on now and have lunch with your girlfriends."

"I will. Take care of yourself, Jack. And if you need anythin', anythin' at all, you just give me a call."

"I will. I'll be in touch."

"Ok. Bye for now then."

"Bye, Lureen."

Jack hung up the phone and heaved a big sigh. That was easier than he thought it would be. Unfortunately, Ennis wasn't having as easy a time.

****

"What are you doin' here? Jenny's over at her friend's house and it ain't your day to see her anyway?" Alma greeted him at the doorway – not inviting him in.

"I come to bring you this." He handed her the wad of bills. "It's the last two support payments, two hundred fifty dollars. That settles things between us now."

"What are you talkin' about – settles things?"

"That's the last of the money I owe you. My debt to you is paid in full."

"Your debt to me will never be paid in full, Ennis del Mar. You think money makes up for all the things you did to me?"

"Alma, I ain't here to go over our nightmare of a marriage. That's the last of the court ordered support payments so it's over with. I'm leavin' Riverton – I'm movin' away. You can tell the girls that once I get settled someplace I'll write to them with my new address."

"Where you movin' to? Did you get fired or somethin'?"

"No, I didn't get fired. I quit. I got me a better offer. It's way outta town so I'm movin'."

"Back out to some dirty old ranch I reckon." Alma said as she counted the money a second time."

"It's what I do, Alma. I'm a ranch hand. Always was and always will be."

"It's stupid is what it is – dirty, nasty work for next to nothin' pay. You'd think by now that you'd wanna make somethin' of yourself, but oh no – not Ennis del Mar. He's gotta find the dirtiest job for the lowest pay."

"We can't all be grocery store clerks, Alma."

"Monroe is NOT a clerk! He's the manager and he makes more money than you ever dreamed of!"

"Good for him. And he's got you to spend it all for him!"

"He likes to see me wearin' pretty clothes! I dress nice for him." Alma defended herself.

"I'm sure you do. And I'm sure he's tickled pink end of the month when the bills start comin' in."

"He makes enough money to pay all my bills!"

"Sounds like a marriage made in heaven then. He makes a lot of money and you spend a lot of money. It makes no difference to me. I'm outta here."

"Ennis del Mar, you get back here and give me your new address." She called after him as he took the stairs off the porch, two at a time."

"Ain't got one yet. When I do, I'll write to Junior and give it to her. If Jenny wants to write to me, I'll write her back. You got no need of my address." With that he jumped into his truck and burned rubber out of there, spewing stones and dirt up on her perfectly manicured lawn and sidewalk. A glance in his rear-view mirror showed her shaking a fist at him and her mouth going. He was happy to see the last of her!

Ennis skidded to a stop in front of his trailer, jumped out and hurried inside. Jack had just reached for a beer when Ennis tackled him, shoved him over on the bed and had is way with him. They lay side by side, both on their backs with Ennis' head on Jack's shoulder.

"You get your call made to Lureen?" Ennis asked as he lit a cigarette for each of them.

"I did. Did you get squared away with Alma?"

"I did. What do you say; we burn rubber out of this shit-hole town?"

"I'd say I like the way you think! You wanna have lunch first though? I'm starvin!"

"You're right. I'm starvin' too. I got some canned stuff we can eat – that be all right?"

"Uh huh. Whatever you got will be fine."

"Ok." Ennis sat up and pulled Jack up with him. "I need to pack too. I stopped at the grocery story and got some boxes from the back. You still any good with a can-opener?"

"Sure I am! You want me to fix lunch?"

"Might as well. You gotta get up off a this bed or I won't be able to concentrate on my packin'. There's some cans up there, cupboard over the sink. I'm gonna grab those boxes outta my truck and get packin." Ennis stood up and pulled his jeans and boots back on, grabbed his shirt and headed out the door as he snapped it shut.

He brought the four cardboard boxes in and started packing while Jack worked the can opener on a couple cans of Chili Mac. Ennis dumped his extra pair of boots and his dirty clothes in one box, his clean clothes in one box, his bathroom stuff and pots and pans in one box, and what few dishes and glasses he had, he wrapped in towels in the last box and pulled the sheets and blankets off the bed, folded them and stacked them on top. What few groceries he had left, he bagged up in three brown paper grocery bags and the two of them hauled everything out to Ennis' truck. Next came his saddle, his fishing gear and his hunting rifle.

Everything else, he dumped in the garbage can out front, took a quick look around the place and headed for the manager's office to turn in his keys and they were on their way.

****

"So where you figure on us stayin' while we're lookin' for a place?" Ennis asked as they drove into Sheridan.

"I figured we'd get us a motel room somewhere. What about a Ramada Inn? Sign says there's one up ahead – two miles."

"That's too expensive, Jack. We gotta watch our money real close."

"Ok. You're right. I'm sure we can find somethin' cheaper."

"When K.E. and me come here, we found us a place over on the west side of town that you could rent by the week. It was good and cheap."

"One of those pay-by-the-hour places?"

"Uh huh. I'm sure they did a lot of business like that too but the place was clean, we had hot water and they didn't complain if you did some cookin' in your room."

"I don't care where we stay, Cowboy, as long as I get to sleep next to you." Jack reached over and squeezed Ennis' arm.

"We need to stop some place and see if we can get us one of those little two-burner hot plates. K.E. and I borrowed one and we fixed all our meals on it. We never had to eat out once while we was here."

"It's kinda late. Probably won't be much open at this hour. Let's stop up ahead and get gas. Maybe they'll know where we can find a place still open."

The gas station attendant didn't know of any place open that late but told them about the Goodwill store where he often shopped. He said they carried all that kind of stuff and told them how to get there.

They bought some ready made sandwiches for their dinner and headed for the motel. Jack couldn't believe the price when Ennis came back out and told him. "You're kidding! A whole week for just seventy five dollars! That's what the Ramada costs for one night."

"That's what I was tellin' you, Jack. This ain't no fancy place like the Ramada but the price is right and we can make do. We'll hit that Goodwill place in the mornin' and hopefully we can come up with a hot plate. This ain't the greatest neighborhood though so we best take all our stuff inside." Ennis pointed the way to the last row of rooms and Jack found a place to park their trucks.

They each carried a double handful of their stuff inside and Jack sat down on one of the beds and bounced a little.

"Not bad," he said with a lecherous smile. Ennis sat on the bed opposite and did the same. "It ain't fancy but we slept on worse."

"We have for a fact, Cowboy, and it's only temporary – just until we find us a place."

"Right. Now get up off your sweet ass and help me carry the rest of this stuff in so we can try these beds out."

The room was small – just large enough for two full size beds with a tiny passage way between them, a small dresser with chipped brown paint and cigarette stains on it and a tiny bathroom with just a toilet, sink and shower stall – no bath tub. The place was very old, the paint was chipped and falling off in some places, the faucets dripped and the fixtures were stained beyond cleaning. It didn't smell too bad and the ancient heating unit in the window worked somewhat. The windows rattled when the wind blew and the light fixtures held only the dimmest of bulbs. But they settled in and made the best of it.

They piled all their stuff on the second bed – one was all that they would be needing.

First thing in the morning they headed out for the Goodwill store. Ennis reluctantly agreed they could go through a drive-through and order breakfast. They were both starving and anxious to get started.

They found the Goodwill store easily enough and found exactly what they were looking for – a two burner electric hot plate plus an electric frying pan and coffee pot. They made their purchases and headed back to the motel after picking up a newspaper.

Ennis set up the hot plate on the dresser and started a pot of coffee while Jack scanned the real estate adds.

"See anything?"

"Well they got a lot of stuff for sale but so far nothin' in our price range. You know, I been thinkin' …"

"You always was a great thinker, Jack Twist." Ennis grinned at him and handed him a cup of coffee and sat beside him on the bed.

"Most of this stuff is handled by local Real Estate companies. A couple are listed by the First National Bank of Sheridan. I'm thinkin' these are repossessed properties. We might have better luck goin' over to the bank and talkin' to someone there about a place."

"I hate thinkin' we'd be takin' over a place someone got kicked out of." Ennis said.

"Well, that's a sad fact of life, Ennis. Sometimes people get in over their heads and they just have to move on. That don't mean their places should just sit empty forever."

"I'd rather just go to a Real Estate place where we know the people want to sell their property."

"Those are the places that cost the most, Ennis. The places the bank's holding title to you can get a lot cheaper – sometimes just for catchin' up on the back taxes."

"You kiddin?"

"Nope. It happens down in Texas too. But the only way you can find these deals is through bankers. They don't want to hold on to these properties any longer than they have to. They ain't in the Real Estate business to make money. The most they're hopin' for is to reclaim the money they loaned out on the properties."

"I guess we'd better go talk to the banker then. I ain't got much money to put into this, Jack. All I got is the two thousand I got for sellin' my horses and my last pay check which was $267.

"I brought a thousand cash with me, like I usually do and I spent less than a hundred of it on gas and food gettin' up here. I got a little over three grand in the bank back in Childress. I can get that transferred up here soon as I open an account."

"I doubt we can even get a place for what we got." Ennis mumbled sadly.

"We don't need to buy the place outright – just come up with enough for a down payment. We can take out a loan on my truck and get maybe another ten or twelve grand. That ought to be enough for a down payment if we can find a place cheap enough."

"Well, let's get on over to the bank and see what they have to say. Hold on to that paper though. We'll be needin' to look at the want ads for jobs."

Jack did the talking when they got to the bank and they spoke with the loan officer, Martha Walsh. Jack explained their financial situation and asked about any really cheap places they might have that they could pick up for back taxes. She spent some time at her files and came back carrying one folder.

"We do have one place that might meet you're requirements."

"What's wrong with it?" Ennis asked.

"It's the house. It's not livable. It's recommend that it be torn down and rebuilt."

"That'd cost some big money." Ennis said.

"I'm afraid so," Martha said. "But this is the only property that remotely fits your financial situation. It can be had for ten thousand dollars down."

"We ain't got ten thousand dollars." Ennis said.

"How much can you loan me on my truck?" Jack asked.

"Our appraiser will have to take a look at it but if it's in good shape and it's only a year old, I think we could probably go around eight or ten thousand. You said it's paid off and you have the title with you?"

"Yes ma'am. It's paid off in full and the title is in the glove compartment. I'll get it for you." Jack and Ennis walked out to the truck.

"Jack, we don't make no deal till we see the place. We gotta see what the soil is like – we gotta look around some."

"We will. We'll do all those things. But right now we need to see if we can come up with some money for a down payment."

They went back in and handed the title over along with the keys so that the appraiser could go take a look and come up with a figure.

"Can you tell us about this place? How big is it?" Jack asked.

"And how far out of town?" Ennis asked thinking about driving back and forth to work.

"Certainly. Just one moment." Martha shuffled through her papers in the folder."

"Its two hundred fifty acres, I know that's small but it's a nice starter place. And it's, let me see, thirty three miles out of town on 331. Once our appraiser is finished looking at your truck, you can drive out there and have a look around. I can't go with you because there is a manager's meeting in about thirty minutes but I can give you the keys and you can go out and have a look around." She laid the keys on the desk in front of Jack and got up and went into the back.

"What do you think?" Jack asked Ennis.

"I think we need to go take a look before we get our hopes up. The ground might be worthless and we'd just be buyin' ourselves two hundred fifty acres of nothin'."

"Even though the price is right, if it ain't got a house – it might not be such a good deal."

"She said they recommended that the house on it be torn down so at least we know it's got a house. I know how to do a lot of that fixin' up stuff, Jack. Maybe we could get it good enough to live in without tearin' it down and startin' over."

"You think so?" Jack brightened up again.

"Won't know till we get a look at it. Here she comes."

Martha came back to her desk and handed Jack the keys to his truck. She told him the bank would be open until three o'clock so they had that much time to get back with the keys. She also handed them a small map to show them how to get out to the place.

They found the place easy enough, unlocked the gate and drove up to the house. Jack took one look at it and said, "I agree with her. This place should be bulldozed."

"Let's leave the house for now and take a look around. I want to get out into the pastures and see what kind of soil we got here. Head out over that way, back behind the barn."

They drove back and forth across the place for about an hour before heading back to the house again – Ennis getting out every so often and digging down into the soil.

"I tell you, Jack. This soil ain't half bad. It ain't been worked in years but I dug down far enough to see it looks pretty darn good to me. We need to check out the county records and see what the wells are like in this area – see if there's been any contamination and what the percentage is of them goin' dry."

"This house is the big loser though." Jack stopped outside and lit a cigarette. "You sure you wanna go in?"

"Uh huh. You can stay out here if you're afraid of ghosts or somethin'." Ennis teased.

"I ain't afraid of no ghost, Ennis. I'm afraid that thing will fall down on our heads!"

"That's just the porch that's hangin' and that's because that tree pushed that support down. Let's check out the foundation first – see if we find any cracks." They walked around the place, pulled the bushes back and checked the foundation out thoroughly.

"Not a crack. Looks sound to me." Ennis said as they rounded the front of the house and headed to the door. Ennis worked the key in the rusty old lock.

"Foundation may be Ok but the rest of the place looks like shit."

Ennis got the door opened and they walked inside. Birds flew in every direction and other critters scampered into their hiding places.

"I think I've seen enough," Jack started back out to the front porch.

"Oh come on, Jack. You afraid of a few little birds?"

"It ain't the birds, Ennis; it's the stench they left behind. No tellin' what all's been livin' in that place. This place needs to be burned to the ground."

Ennis walked on into the house, checking out the rooms – four downstairs plus a bathroom – front room on the left, next the stairway, a bathroom, and a small room someone had been using for a bedroom. On the right, the dining room across from the front room and kitchen next with a back door at the end of the hall. He stepped over holes in the floor and debris scattered everywhere. Ennis took the stairs carefully as they creaked beneath his weight. Jack decided he'd join him and followed him up. The hand rail had fallen down and the wall paper was hanging loose in several places. Small things scurried out of their way as they proceeded. Bird feathers and droppings were everywhere. There were four rooms up stairs as well – hall down the middle like below and two rooms on either side. Each room was as hideous as the other.

"Let's get out of here, Cowboy. I feel like I'm in the middle of a horror movie. Someone could come out of these rooms after us at any minute with a chain saw ready to make us into fire wood."

They went back outside into the fresh air and climbed into the truck. Jack started it up and Ennis reached over and shut it off.

"I can fix it."

"What are you talkin' about? That house? There ain't nobody can fix that dump up."

"I can."

"How? You got a magic wand somewhere you gonna wave it and make it whole again?"

"Don't need no magic wand, Jack – just a strong back. I tell you, we can fix it up."

"How? Tell me how."

"The birds got in through the broken windows. We fix the windows we get rid of the birds."

"And what about the rest of the critters livin' in there?"

"You live in the country you're gonna have critters. We buy some poison in town and scatter it around and that'll drive most of them off. We get the place cleaned up and repaired we'd have us a fine house here. I tell you, Jack. We can do this."

"You saw the holes in the floors? The mold on the walls?"

"I did. I can fix the holes and scrub the mold off the walls."

"You really know who to do all this stuff? Fix holes in the floor; replace windows, all that stuff?"

"I do. The house is a mess – sure enough and it will take a lot of hard work to bring it back to livable but I ain't never been afraid of hard work. Bottom line is, the soil is good, the house can be fixed up, and the price is right. I think this is the one. We can do this, Jack."

"We ain't even looked at anything else yet." Jack protested.

"Thought you said there was nothing else in the paper we could afford."

"There wasn't. But we could check out some of the Real Estate places."

"We can for a fact. We already paid for a full week at the motel."

"You don't mind if we look around some more – see if we can find something better?"

"Not at all. Let's get back to town and give the bank the keys back and see if you were approved for that loan on your truck."

****

"I'm sorry, Mr. Twist, but that's the banks rules. You must be employed and you must have a local address – something other than a motel."

"We get jobs, we get the loan?" Ennis asked Martha.

"That was the only drawback for the loan. We verified that the truck is indeed paid off and it is in excellent condition. The only thing lacking is employment and a local residence."

"Ok. We were going to be looking for work anyway. Will the ranch be considered a local address or does it have to be in town? We figured on getting a PO box soon as we found a place."

"I'm sure it will be. And the fact that Mr. del Mar will be co-signing the loan helps too."

"All right." Jack said and he and Ennis stood up. "We'll get ourselves jobs and be back to see you. Thank you ma'am."

"I'm starvin'. Wanna hit Denny's?" Jack said as they left the bank and he lit up a cigarette.

"Nope. Let's hit the grocery store, get some stuff and fix lunch in our room."

"You're a hard man, Mr. del Mar." Jack said as he unlocked his truck.

"I thought that's what you liked about me?"

Jack grinned. "You got me there. Let's get groceries, eat and then we can visit some other Real Estate places this afternoon."

"Sure enough," Ennis agreed.

It was difficult cleaning out the electric frying pan in the little bathroom sink but Ennis got it done. They fried up some hamburgers for lunch then headed out to visit some of the local Real Estate places. By late afternoon they had talked with three other Real Estate salesmen and drove out to look at two other properties that were both vetoed because of the soil but they had an appointment the next morning to go out and look over two others.

They made it back to their room by dusk, somewhat exhausted. Jack cooked macaroni and cheese from a box and heated up some hot dogs from their ice chest while Ennis scanned the want ads.

"What time's our appointment tomorrow?" Ennis asked over the newspaper.

"One o'clock. Daniels said he had some meeting he had to go to in the morning and wouldn't be available till after lunch." Jack answered as he filled two plates full and came over to the bed with them.

Ennis took his with a "Thank you" and they started eating. "There's a couple a jobs listed that I could handle. I think I'll go check on that first thing."

"Good idea. That would please Martha. I'll take a look in a minute – see if I can find anything."

Next morning Ennis headed out to the local Safeway grocery store after a breakfast of coffee and oatmeal. Jack stayed behind and made a few phone calls for positions that he saw in the ads.

Just before noon Ennis pulled up and parked at the motel. Jack opened the door and Ennis came in smiling. "I got it, Jack. I got the job. In fact I got two jobs."

"You got two jobs?"

"Uh huh. I got the warehouse job over at Safeway. I work from 6:30 till 3:00. While I was waitin' to speak with Mr. Hennesy the manager, I was lookin' at the bulletin board they got there and saw a notice that they were lookin' for someone to throw the evening paper. That's a two hour job – four o'clock to six. I went over to the newspaper office after talkin' with Hennesy and got that job too. They both want me to start right away – tomorrow. I told them I could."

"Ennis, that's wonderful! But if you got the Safeway job, why did you go for the newspaper job too?"

"Cause it'd be an extra $25 - $30 dollars a week. We could get by on that for groceries if we was careful."

"Wouldn't your Safeway job be enough for groceries?"

"Jack, my Safeway job, I'll be makin' twice what I was for old man Cole. We could put that money to fixin' up a place or on one of the bank loans."

"Ok. That sounds good. I haven't had much luck. I been calling around every ad that I thought I might qualify for and haven't found anything. There is one pretty good lead though. The Ford dealership is lookin' for a salesman. The guy that does the hirin' was out sick today but he's supposed to be back tomorrow so I set up an appointment to go see him."

"That's great, Jack! And you show up in your fancy Ford truck – that ought to give you an edge."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinkin'. I was gettin' ready to fix me a sandwich. What do you say we fix some lunch and get ready for our meetin'?"

"Great! I'm starvin'!" Ennis pulled off his jacket and they set to making sandwiches.

At one o'clock sharp they showed up for their meeting with Daniels and took the drive out to see the property. The soil was good, the house was good, and the price was about the same. The down payment was fifteen grand and would take almost every penny they had and it was only a hundred acres.

"You said you liked the place, Ennis." Jack reminded him later when they were back in their room.

"I do like the place, Jack, but with the size of the down payment we'd have very little cash money left over. I'd hate to start out dead broke with a place. And for about the same price we can get more than twice the land with the first place and a smaller down payment."

"Do we really need that much acreage? I mean, the folks have three hundred acres and they never used but a small part of it."

"Jack, I don't know why your Pa never made a go of your place, I ain't never seen it. But I do know ranchin' and I do intend for us to eventually use whatever amount of land that we can afford. With two hundred and fifty acres, we could do horses as well as cows and whatever else we want to try. Holdin' jobs in town will be great for the first couple of years, till we get the ranch bringin' in some money. But once we quit, we'll be on our own and we'll need to do whatever we can to bring in some cash money for the loans and taxes as well as gettin' by. I was thinkin' maybe we could put in a chicken coop too. They don't take much work at all and there's always a market for eggs."

"That sounds great! I love fried chicken too."

"Chicken is good eatin' for sure. And that back pasture where all the trees are – I was thinkin' we could put in some fruit trees back there.

"With a vegetable garden, huntin' and fishin' we wouldn't never go hungry." Jack grinned.

"That's what I was thinkin. That first place has a lot goin' for it, Jack. And I promise you we can fix up that house real nice. It just needs some seein' to."

"You're really set on that place – aren't you?"

"I think it's the best we've seen for the least amount of money. The bank really wants to get rid of it if it's willin' to let it go for back taxes as a down payment. From the looks of the soil, I'd guess the place ain't been worked in a coupla years. That means the bank has been havin' to pay the taxes on it and will probably be anxious to dump it. They'll be a lot easier to deal with than the real estate companies."

"Well, you know more about this stuff than me. And we could always stay on at the motel until we get the place livable." Jack offered.

"We'd get the most for our money that way. That smaller place was nice too but it's not big enough to do much with. We'd have ourselves a ranch but we'd always have to work in town to get by."

"And you're sure this is where we should live? We could always try Laramie or Cheyenne."

"No. Land that close to the bigger cities is a lot more expensive and those places are usually a lot bigger – a thousand acres or more and you'd need a whole crew to run a place that size. We keep it under three hundred acres, we can handle it ourselves. And besides, here we're right next to the Big Horns and we can take off huntin' or fishin' and just be gone on weekends and not have to take off work. I tell you, Jack, I think that first place is the best deal. Can you check out the water wells with the county tomorrow after your meetin?"

"I can do that."

"Good. Let's get some sleep. I gotta be at Safeway at 6:30."

"Ok. You go ahead and get ready for bed and I'll clean up this mess."

"I'll help. You wanna wash or dry?" Ennis asked as they carried their dishes into the bathroom to wash.

"I'll wash, you can dry." Jack said and tossed Ennis a towel.

CHAPTER TWO

The next day at Safeway, Ennis took right to the work running the fork-lift and was grateful that he had learned to use one out at Cole's place. He had the truck unloaded in record time and the items stacked exactly as he was told. His boss was impressed with his work and told him so. He ate the peanut butter sandwiches that he had packed for his lunch and the day sped by. The newspaper job didn't go as well. It took him three hours to finish all the paper throwing because he hadn't learned the route yet. His boss was not upset with him and explained that it often took a while before a new delivery person got the route memorized.

It was after seven when he pulled into the motel parking lot and got out. Jack opened the door for him and greeted him with a hug after it was closed and locked. "You got the job?" Ennis asked.

"How did you guess?" Jack asked.

"Cause you're grinnin' from ear to ear." Ennis caressed the side of Jack's face.

"I been goin' nuts waitin' for you to get here. I even thought of goin' over to Safeway but decided I'd better not."

"Have you eaten yet? I'm starved!" Ennis tossed his jacket and hat on the second bed that held all their belongings.

"Nope. I been waitin' on you. How about some of this stew tonight? It'd be fast and easy clean up."

"That sounds good. I'm beat." Ennis sat down on the bed and put his feet up.

"The job at Safeway pretty hard work?" Jack said as he worked the can opener.

"Nah. Spent most of the time ridin' around on the fork lift. Boss wanted to do a bunch of movin' stuff in the warehouse around so it would be easier to find things. The toughest job was the paper throwin'. But that was because I didn't know where any of the streets was."

"You could always quit that job if you want – now that I got me a job." Jack offered.

"No. I'll learn them streets. It shouldn't take too long. With gettin' off at Safeway at three – I wouldn't have nothin' to do the rest of the day. It's gonna be an easy enough job once I learn those streets and the extra money will come in handy. I'll probably be late the first week or two until I learn 'em."

"That won't be a problem. My hours are going to be ten to six thirty. So it looks like it's going to be whoever gets home first gets to fix dinner."

"That'll work." Ennis agreed as he washed the stew down with a can of beer.

"Oh, and I went and had the water wells in the area checked out and got good news there. It seems we're in a prime location in this county and there ain't never been a water well gone dry around here since they been keepin' records and that's been near eighty years now and no complaints about wells goin' bad."

"Good. I got a good feelin' about this place, Jack. I think it's the right place for us."

"Well I'm willin' to go along with whatever place you think is best but I ain't sleepin' in that place till we get the smell and the critters out."

"That won't take long, Jack. You'll see. Once we get in there and start cleanin' the place up you'll like it just fine."

"When you think we can get back over to the bank?"

"That little card Martha give us said the bank is opened Saturday morning. You wanna go then or do you work Saturday?"

"I work every other Saturday and then I get the next Monday off so I still get a two day weekend."

"Ok. We can work around that. So are you workin' this Saturday?"

"Uh huh but I don't go in until ten. Bank opens at nine so we can still go and I'll go to work after."

"Good. Things are workin' out just fine, Jack. I never expected to find a job so fast and one that pays as good as Safeway. And now you got yourself a job too."

"Yep. Before you know it, we'll be rollin' in dough."

"Don't think we'll ever be makin' that much. We gotta bank everything we can 'cause once we get that place; it'll be goin' out faster than it's comin' in."

"Yeah, I know. How much you think it will cost to fix up that house?"

"Don't know yet. First thing we'll need is some tools."

"There might be some in that old barn. I wish we had gotten a look inside."

"Maybe Martha has found the key to that padlock by now and we can check it out. But we're gonna need shovels, rakes, and a new burn barrel to get started. That old one they got out there is all rusted out."

"Yeah, I noticed that."

"Then once we get all that shit shoveled out, we need to replace those broken and cracked windows."

"You know how to do that?"

"I do. It ain't hard. We just gotta measure carefully and go buy them. Puttin' them in is easy."

"Ok. What about the holes in the floor?"

"Easy enough to fix with a little ply wood."

"And the smell? It'll be gone once we shovel the place out?"

"No, it takes more than that to get rid of the smell. Most of that old wall paper is moldy and that's the worst of the smell – the mold. We'll need to get some bleach and water and some scrub brushes and get to work on that."

"That'll kill the smell?"

"Yep."

"Then what do we need to do to kill the smell of the bleach?"

"Vinegar water. I ain't tryin' to make light of it, Jack. It'll be a lot of work but its work that's easy enough to do, and we'll have that house in shape before you know it."

"Them stairs didn't feel none too steady."

"That's a fact. We'll pick up some two-by-fours at the lumber yard and brace them up good."

"What about that front porch?"

"That needs to be tore off. Looks like the wind and rain has it about down anyway. Porch is easy enough to build back on. That won't be no problem after we trim that tree back."

"And you know how to do all this stuff?"

"I do. It's mostly just sweat work and there ain't no big trick to doin' it. You just have to get in there and do what needs to be done."

"I ain't afraid of hard work, Ennis. It just wasn't what I was expectin' or hopin' for us a place to live."

"I know, Jack. But if we can get this place for just the back taxes as down payment, we'll be a lot further ahead than if we took one of them other places."

"I ain't against that place, Cowboy. It was just the stench that I couldn't stand."

"Well, we'll take care of that right off – soon as we get the place shoveled out. We'll work at takin' all that moldy paper down and burn it then get to scrubbin'."

"We could even sleep in the barn for a while, if it ain't too bad. We got the campin' gear and stuff and we'd be out of the wind. We could probably even come up with a little heater or somethin'. It'll be winter before you know it."

"I won't let you freeze, Jack. I promise you that." Ennis said as they put the dishes away and snuggled down in the bed.

"As long as I get to sleep next to you every night, Cowboy, we can sleep anywhere you want!"

****

The next day when Ennis got home from work he found out that Jack had gone out and gotten another job at the newspaper place, same as his only throwing papers in the mornings and he was promised pay of between $30 and $40 a week for his route as it had more people on it than the evening route did. The rest of that first week was rough, learning their routes, but by the weekend, they were a lot surer of themselves when they showed up at the bank at nine o'clock sharp.

They told Martha that they had made their decision and they wanted the first property she had showed them and were ready to deal. She said she would put their request for the loan and the offer on the property before the loan committee and would have an answer in a few days. They were told to check back on Wednesday.

Ennis was working but Jack had finished his paper route and was at the bank when they opened the front doors Wednesday morning. Martha took him back to her office and explained the situation to him. She had put both offers in front of the committee and they agreed to the sale with one stipulation. They would have to wait for at least ninety days to make sure they both still had their jobs and then the loan on the truck and purchase of the property would be put through.

Ennis was disappointed about the wait when Jack told him that evening and made plans to visit Martha Saturday morning.

"Thank you for seein' us, Ma'am." Ennis started off. "I got an offer I'd like to discuss if you're interested." They all sat down in Martha's office.

"And what would that be, Mr. del Mar? Are you interested in a different property?"

"No Ma'am. Here's my offer. The bank owns that property right now and we want it. If you could get the electricity turned on, we could get started cleanin' it up. Now we want this place for sure and we both of us got two jobs each now and we aim on keepin' 'em.

We'd pay the electricity bill and if for some reason somethin' happened and the deal didn't go through in ninety days, then you'd have that property in much better shape than it is now. I can't see where the bank would be losin' anythin' by takin' my offer. We'd be willin' to pay whatever it costs, the deposit or somethin', to get the electricity turned on."

Martha sat and blinked her eyes a few times. "You mean you'd be willin' to tear that place down for us for free?"

"No Ma'am. I don't aim to tear it down. I aim to fix it up."

"Fix it up? I haven't ever been out to the place but our people said it needed tearin' down."

"Oh it's an all-mighty mess for sure but I'm pretty handy at fixin' things and I think I can get that place livable with a little hard work."

"That certainly is an interesting offer. Give me a few minutes and let me talk this over with my manager and see what he has to say about it." She pushed back her chair and left them alone.

"What do you think, Cowboy? You got any feel for what they're gonna do?"

"Yep. They're gonna let us have the place early. They got nothin' to lose on this deal. It's a win, win situation for them. Now that you got your bank account transferred up here from Texas and we both got good money comin' in, they'll have no call to refuse us."

Ennis tried to sound sure of himself but inside he was shaking and hoping that he was right.

Martha came back into the room smiling and with a handful of papers. "Looks like you boys have yourself a place." She sat down and started explaining the paperwork.

"These are the loan papers for the truck for ten thousand. I need you to sign here and here and here." She pointed out to Jack then handed each paper over to Ennis and showed him where to sign as co-signer on the note. "Now these are the papers for the property. It shows here that you are paying off the back taxes as your down payment on the place and this is what your monthly payment on the balance of the loan will be. We added this paragraph at the bottom that states that the loan for the property is pending and that ownership will not transfer to the two of you for ninety days from today but that possession of the property is being given to the two of you as of today."

They both read it in detail and signed all the copies in all the places she pointed out.

"The electricity will be turned on Monday morning."

"The deposit?" Ennis asked.

"The bank will take care of the electricity until ownership legally transfers to the two of you in ninety days – second week in February. Then you will have to go over to Sheridan Electric and make your deposit and the bills will start comin' to you." She handed them the keys and stood up. She reached out her hand to them, "Congratulations." She shook both their hands and they left, grinning from ear to ear.

"We did it, Cowboy! You did it! You got us the place without the ninety day wait."

Jack said as they climbed into the pickup.

"Uh huh. So now we got a mortgaged place, a mortgaged truck, and two loan payments to make."

"Yeah, but the payments don't start until the loan goes through in February and we can make them easy with what we make. We still got right at five grand between us to get started and I'll be gettin' commissions on whatever I sell and I already got a couple of good prospects. Two of them are comin' back today."

"That's great, Jack. Now you'd better get your sweet ass to work. I'm gonna stop at the store and pick up a few tools and head on out."

"Wish I was goin' out there with you." Jack said as he pulled the truck up into the motel parking.

"I do too, Jack, but you need to be at work. I'll get done what I can today. Did you pack your lunch yet?"

"No. But that'll only take me a minute. I'm kinda gettin' hooked on those peanut butter sandwiches. You know, they ain't half bad."

"I know. I love that stuff." Ennis agreed as they entered their room and began making sandwiches. "We need some more of this stuff. I'll bring some home Monday. You know, Safeway has this table in the back where they keep all the dented cans and busted open packages and stuff they can't sell. The employees can take what they want for free. I'm gonna start takin' some of that stuff. I seen cans of stuff there that nobody seems to be takin'."

"You seen any peanut butter there?" Jack asked as he placed his four sandwiches into a plastic grocery bag and rolled it up.

"Nope. But I did find out that employees get a ten percent discount. So if we shop there, we'll save money. Plus I'll check out those banged up cans and boxes in the back and see if there is anything there we can use."

"Sounds good. Gotta go." Jack gave him a quick kiss and a hug and hurried out the door.

Ennis finished his sandwiches, bagged them and put a pot of coffee on. Then he dug their five gallon water jug out of their pile on the bed and filled it. He found his thermos, rinsed it out and when the coffee was ready, he filled it. He grabbed an apple from their stash and headed out to the ranch after stopping to buy a tape measure, shovel, rake, broom and new burn barrel at the local hardware store.

It was a strange feeling driving up to that old house. It was a broken down mess, that was a fact, but it took on a whole new feeling for him now. It was his – his and Jack's. They had their own place! He knew in the back of is mind that it wouldn't be theirs legally for another ninety days but in his heart, it was already theirs. He was going to fix the place up for Jack and make it the best place he could.

He stepped around the hole in the porch and ducked under the broken beams and fallen down roof and unlocked the front door. The birds again were flapping like crazy and smaller varmints scattered. Ennis just stood there grinning. "This is my place now! You all had better find yourselves another place to stink up!" He called out to them.

He walked on through to the back door and pushed and shoved until he managed to get it opened as well. He let it stand wide open like the front door in hopes that some air blowing through would help with the smell.

First thing he did was measure the windows. Three were broken out and two others were cracked so five would need replacing. He measured them carefully and wrote the numbers down on a piece of the brown paper grocery bag he had his lunch in. Then he got out the burn barrel and set it up where the old one had been. He had shoved it off its brick foundation and set the new one up. Then he got out the shovel and rake and got busy.

By the time he stopped for lunch he had the place shoveled out, broom swept and the burn barrel was blazing. After lunch he drove into town and picked up the glass panes, and the caulk he would need for the windows and a few more tools. By mid afternoon the two down-stairs windows installed and he had the old front porch – what was left of it – torn down and set ablaze in the burn barrel.

He was tearing down the pieces of wall paper that were hanging and walking out with a double hand full towards the burn barrel when Jack drove up. "You here all ready, Jack? You didn't get fired, did you?"

Jack tackled him with a ferocious hug that made him drop the mess he was carrying.

"Nope! The owner had some family dinner he had to go to so we closed up early."

"Good. Now you can help me clean up this mess you made me drop." Ennis bent down and started picking the paper up.

"Ennis," Jack said as he bent down and started picking up papers, "I sold my first truck today. The biggest most expensive one we have on the lot. It's gonna mean a nice fat commission."

Ennis tossed the papers into the air and jumped him, knocking him to the ground. They rolled in the dirt, laughing and kissing. "I told you this was gonna work out for us, didn't I?" Ennis insisted.

"Uh huh, you did for a fact – after I badgered you for years and years into tryin' it!"

Ennis stood up and pulled Jack with him. "You was right, Jack, but I was right too. I had to stay with my girls until they were grown. I had to do right by them."

"You did, Cowboy. And now it's our turn."

"You ain't gonna believe all I got done, Jack. The place still stinks but not at bad as it did. Let's get this shit into the burn barrel and I'll show you."

"I see the porch is gone." Jack said as they once again gathered the scraps of wall paper and headed for the back.

"Yeah. I was hopin' to salvage some lumber from it but it was too far gone. There wasn't nothin' left of it worth savin so it's all in here." They dumped the paper scraps into the barrel.

"Hey, we can walk in here now without having to step over stuff. The floor looks pretty bad." Jack said as they came in the back door.

"Yeah. Just watch out for them holes. This old linoleum will need to be pulled up and hauled off to a dump soon as I find where the local dump is located. You can't burn this shit."

"I don't hear any birds flappin' around. You got rid of 'em?"

"They took off once I got here. I told 'em this was our house now and they'd have to find someplace else to live."

"You think that will work?"

"I fixed the down-stairs windows, Jack. The ones up-stairs are cracked but not broken so they can't get back in."

"You did?" Jack said as he whirled around and looked. "I didn't even notice." He walked over and took a closer look. "You did a good job – looks professional."

"It ain't all that hard to do, Jack."

"Well, I'm glad you know how to do it, 'cause I'd a hired it done."

"We will need to hire some stuff done, but most of this we can do ourselves."

"I stopped at the post office and got us a box and sent a card off to Lureen then I changed outta my work clothes. I figured you'd be puttin' me to work as soon as I got out here. What do you want me to do?"

"We only got about an hour of day light left. No sense in startin' anythin now. How about we try and get in that barn again. We're gonna need a ladder so I can clean out the chimney and replace those up-stairs windows but there might be one in the barn and it'd be a shame to go out and buy a ladder if we already have one."

None of the keys he was given worked in the padlock. They were about to give up when Ennis spotted a small piece of wire on the ground. He picked it up, inserted it into the lock and began wiggling it. In moments they heard the slight 'click'. He pulled and the lock came unlocked.

"Hey, how'd you do that?" Jack was impressed.

"A little somethin' I learned along the way. This one place where K.E. and me worked had this bad lock on the back door. The owner showed us how to open it with a piece of wire. He always kept some lying nearby so we could get in when we needed to."

They dragged the barn door open and went inside. The place was crammed full of stuff covered with canvas tarps. They made their way around the edge until they came to the back door. They lifted the beam from the latch and shoved it open – flooding the place with sunlight. The dust swirled and settled over everything and they began checking to see what all they had. "Here's a baler." Jack called out. "Mower over here." Assorted pieces of furniture in various stages of condition, were uncovered and in the middle of it all, a tractor.

"A tractor!" Ennis said with awe.

"That ain't a tractor, Cowboy. It's an antique that belongs in a museum somewhere."

"Shit! It's the same make my daddy used to have." Ennis said as he pulled the rest of the canvas off.

"That thing hasn't run in twenty or thirty years, Ennis. It'd probably blow up in your face if you tried to start it."

"Not if I take it apart and work it over first, it won't." Ennis was wrenching the hood open and checking the engine.

"We could buy a new one. Pay for it a little each month." Jack offered.

"We already got two bills to pay on each month, Jack. We won't be needin' it before spring anyway so give me some time and I'll see if I can get it workin'."

"Up to you. I just figured with holdin' down two jobs and re-doin' the house and all, that you had enough on your hands. You gonna have any time left over for me?"

Ennis came out from under the tractor hood, and brushed his hands off. "Jack, everythin' I do is for you – everythin'!"

"I don't know much about this kinda stuff, Ennis, but I wanna help. I don't want you out here workin' your ass off all by yourself."

Ennis rested both hands on Jack's shoulders. "Jack, I'm gonna need your help every step of the way. I couldn't do none of this without you."

"Yes you could." Jack brooded. "You know how to do all this stuff."

"Knowin' how and bein' able to do it all, is two different things. Most of the stuff is easy enough, it just takes time and some work. With the two of us doin' it, it will go a lot faster."

"You just tell me what to do and I'll do it – whatever you need."

"I'll tell you what I need right now is a shower and some dinner. Tomorrow's Sunday and we're both off. We can get an early start out here." They walked out of the barn after closing the back door. "I figured we'd leave scrubbin' the walls until we have runnin' water and we won't have that until the electricity is on to run the pump. So we may as well start on the floor."

"I can help with that. You think that's going to be much of a job? That linoleum looked like it will come up pretty easily."

"It might and it might not. That stuff is glued down. Some of the glue has deteriorated

enough so that it's pretty loose but the rest we'll have to scrape off. It ain't easy but we can do it. Once we get all that off, we can see how much ply wood we'll need to fix those holes."

"Is that gonna be much of a job?"

"You never know until you get into it." Ennis said as they locked up the house and headed back to the motel. "We need to find out where the county dump is and pick up some critter poison at the store. While we have the floor opened up we can throw some around under the house and get rid of anything else that has made a home under there."

"I like that idea. I don't care much for the creepy crawly things." Jack said with a shudder.

"Me neither. And they get in your pantry and mess up your food. We'll get that all taken care before we move in, Jack. I wouldn't move you into no place that was crawlin' with bugs."

"I appreciate that. I just can't stand the thought of bugs crawlin' around the food or in my bed."

"You don't have to worry none about that, Jack. I'm the only critter that's gonna be crawlin' around in your bed from now on."

Jack grinned and the two of them got in their trucks and headed back to the motel.

"I figured we'd be workin' into the night out there." Jack said as they got out of their trucks and Ennis unlocked the door to their room.

"Nah, not yet. Without no electricity we won't."

"I can't believe you got so much done out there all ready." Jack said as he slouched on the bed while Ennis opened some cans for dinner.

"I had all day out there, Jack. From now on, it's gonna improve a little more each day."

"It didn't even smell as bad as I remembered."

"That's 'cause I got all that shit out of there and left the front and back door wide open so the wind could blow some of the smell away. In the morning it will probably be pretty strong again after being closed up all night."

"How long do you think it will take to get rid of the smell entirely?"

"Depends on how much time we can spend out there. I was thinkin' if we could spend at least an hour out there each evening – that would help a lot. I figured we're both home by seven. If we have dinner and leave here by eight, we'd get there just about eight thirty, work till nine thirty and be back here for bed by ten."

"That sounds do-able but what can we get done in an hour?"

"Lots of stuff, Jack. I think we should concentrate on one room at a time and I think the first room should be the front room. I noticed, out in the barn, they had some of those long brushes that you use to clean out chimneys. I also saw a ladder. First thing tomorrow morning, I want to get working on getting that fireplace going and hauling some wood in."

"We gonna work by firelight?"

"Nah. Tomorrow we work from sun up till dark then we come back here and get ready for work Monday mornin'."

"I saw some lanterns out there. A couple in the barn and there was one on the mantle too."

"Yeah, I saw them. It wouldn't hurt to pick up some kerosene and some new wicks just in case we decide to work a little longer on the place."

"That's always good to have around anyway in case the electricity cuts off in a storm or somethin'."

"Your electricity go off a lot up in Lightnin' Flat?"

"Uh huh. Sometimes when it wasn't even stormin'. I remember it used to scare me a lot. Momma used to get the candles out and make a game out of it. Now that I think back on it, Pa probably just didn't pay the bill. I remember when I was little she used to yell at him a lot for spendin' money on whiskey. That was probably the money that was supposed to pay the electric bill."

"Times were tough back then. I don't think either of our Pas woulda won any medals. Mine drank too and got mean as the devil. We knew enough to stay outta sight when he come home smellin' like whiskey."

"I used to get drunk a lot down in Texas too but I never got mean. Lureen told me that one time. She said she didn't care that I drank and I could drink as much as I wanted 'cause I never was mean to her or Bobby and all I ever did was go into my study and close the door. I didn't never bother nobody and I never got drunk in town – always at home."

"You had a study, Jack?" Ennis asked as he sat down next to Jack on the edge of the bed and handed Jack one of the two plates he was carrying.

"Yeah. We was livin' in this big old house that used to belong to Lureen's grandmother. She got it five or six years ago when the old lady passed. She willed it to her along with a pile of money. It had lots of rooms. Up stairs I had my own room too. I picked the smallest one I could find and made it my own place. Lureen had the wall taken down between the two biggest rooms and made one huge room for her. She had it all done up fancy in silk and satin and lace and all that girly shit. She made the room next to it over into a closet for herself."

"She needed a whole room for a closet?" Ennis asked around bites of food.

"Yeah and it was filled with all her froo froo stuff."

"I never figured you to go for someone like that. I thought you said she was a rodeo gal?"

"She was when we first met. Dressed all the time in western shirts and boots and jeans but she passed out of that phase once Bobby was on the way and became this society gal. There wasn't a party thrown in Childress that she wasn't invited to and that meant a different outfit for each one. She was always buyin' me fancy stuff too but I never used most of it. I did though when we had to go to those shindigs at the club and they were just about every other week or so."

"Shit! I knew you had money, Jack, but I never thought you was part of the Country Club bunch."

"I didn't have money, Cowboy, Lureen did. She worked for her Pa and he paid her big money plus she had what she called an allowance her grandmother set up for her when she turned eighteen. She had charge accounts at 'bout every store in Childress and spent money like crazy. I never saw any of the bills. Either she took care of them or they went to her daddy. I don't know. I just know that whatever I made I was allowed to keep and I wasn't expected to pay no bills with it. I shoulda saved more of it, I guess. It just never seemed to matter none to me. I'd given up hope of you ever agreein' to us gettin' a place. So I spent it on fancy trucks every other year and campin' equipment and whiskey."

"It's Ok." Ennis reached over and caressed the back of Jack's neck. "I like it better this way. If we come together with you bringin' a bunch of cash into this, I'd feel like a kept man. This way, we're more or less equal."

"You are a kept man, Ennis del Mar. You're mine and I aim to keep you!" Jack grinned and leaned his head on Ennis' shoulder.

"I can live with that." Ennis mumbled as he blinked back the tears.

CHAPTER THREE

Next morning they awoke before dawn, went a round or two in bed and had breakfast – Jack commentin' on the oatmeal. "What do you put in this stuff, Cowboy? I always hated oatmeal before but this stuff you fix up is really good."

"Just brown sugar and butter. It gives it a little flavor. It's still mush but its good tastin' mush."

By the time they cleaned the dishes, got dressed and left, it was daylight. They stopped at the local Home Depot and picked up a few things then headed out to their ranch.

"I get all kinds of funny feelin's when I come out here." Ennis said as he unlocked the front gate.

"Me too. It's 'cause this is our place, Ennis. It's like walkin' right into a dream."

"Uh huh. Or maybe a nightmare." Ennis answered as they drove up to the house and saw the roof covered with birds.

"They're lookin' to find a way back in." Jack said and he honked his horn six or seven times and they all flew off into the trees.

"There ain't no way they can get back in. I ain't had a chance yet to check out the roof but there wasn't any leaks in the upstairs 'cept for in those two rooms with the cracked windows and that's mostly wall and floor damage. I checked it out real good first time we came out here and I don't think that roof leaks. I'll get up there and check it out and make sure there ain't no place under the eaves where they can get in. Last thing we need is for them to be nestin' up there in the attic."

"You think that old ladder in the barn is strong enough to hold you?"

"Yeah. It's old but it's strong. I didn't see no wood rot on it any where. It should hold."

"Ok. So what do we do first?" Jack asked as they headed for the barn.

"Why don't you open both the front and back doors so the place can be airin' out. I want to head on up on the roof and see about that chimney." Ennis tossed Jack the keys.

"Ok." Jack answered and took off for the house.

Ennis carried the ladder over to the side of the house next to the chimney and checked it over again – then went back into the barn and carried out the chimney brushes. He slung the strap that held them together over his shoulder and started up the ladder. He tried out each rung carefully before putting his full weight on it as he went up. The old thing creaked and groaned, as most wooden ladders did, but it held just fine and there was no give on the rungs as he stepped on them. It was a good ladder all right – old but sturdy.

An hour's work on the chimney and he had it cleaned out – all the birds nests and debris was carried out by Jack as Ennis managed to dislodge it. They were both covered with soot when they finished and laughed at each other once Ennis came down off the roof.

They cleaned up as best they could using the water they brought and a couple of towels.

"I never expected that much shit to come outta there!" Jack was saying.

"You coulda stood back a little bit. I didn't mean for you to be wearin' it." Ennis teased.

"Oh, that's all right. I don't mind gettin' dirty – as long as you're gettin' dirty too."

"Well, we're gonna be gettin' plenty dirty for a while. I just hope the weather holds out. We don't need no snow just now."

"It's probably cold enough for snow." Jack said as he looked at the November sky.

"Yeah but if there ain't none around we won't get it. I just want to get the place closed up good before that happens."

"I walked around and took a good look up under the eaves while you was on the roof and I didn't see any holes." Jack said as he drank some coffee from their thermos.

"The roof looks pretty good too. It's got some shingles missin' and it all needs replacin' but I'm hopin' we can put that off until summer." Ennis said as he sipped his coffee.

"Maybe we should do that first. I mean a roof is about the most important, ain't it?"

"Nah. The most important thing we need to do is to replace all the wiring. That's gonna cost a bundle. Then if we got enough left over after that, we need to get a plumber in here and redo all the plumbin."

"You think the wirin's no good? Ain't it all inside the walls? Wouldn't it be protected?"

"Nah, it's old, Jack, real old. And old wirin' is dangerous. It could cause a fire and you'd never even know it until we came home from work one day and the place was burnt down to the ground."

"Shit. I didn't know it could catch on fire."

"It sure enough can. One summer Cole's daughter was doin' laundry and her house took fire. It was lucky she was there and caught it. Fire trucks got there in time to save the place but she lost the two back rooms of her house. Firemen said it was the wirin' was too old. Cole had the all the old wire yanked out and replaced with new and I helped him build those two rooms back."

"Oh, so that's how come you to know about doin' such things."

"Mostly. And me and K.E. done lots of different jobs when we was workin' together. We cleaned out chicken coops, rabbit hutches, barns, stables, pig pens – just about any kind of mess a farm animal can make – me and K.E. cleaned it. We also done some roof repair, built a chicken coop, and worked on a crew building stables. We done lots of jobs like that."

"I guess the wirin' is more important than the roof then." Jack agreed as he recapped the thermos.

"The roof, you and me can do, Jack. That roof ain't too steep as roofs go. I don't want to be climbin' around on it now with the temperature this low. We could get snow any time or freezin' rain. You don't wanna be climbin' around up on a roof this time of year. That's a summertime job."

"Ok. We got plenty of work to do inside the house anyway. Damn, it's cold!" Jack shivered.

"Let's scout around and see if we can scare up some fire wood. There ought to be some back over there by them trees. We can get a fire goin' now that the chimney's clean."

"Oh that sounds good to me!" Jack agreed and they got in the pickup and drove towards the trees after first stopping in the barn and picking up their axe and saw.

"What we need is a chain saw." Jack said as they neared a fallen tree, silver gray with age.

"That'd be nice, Jack, but they are expensive. Later on if we got the money we will get one. But right now, I'll start choppin' and you can saw off some of those branches for kindlin."

It took them a couple of hours but they got that tree cut into chunks just right for the fire place and hauled it all back to the house and carried it inside. They stacked it beside the fire place and Jack laid the fire and got it going.

"It's drawin' good, Ennis," Jack said as he watched the smoke swirl up the flue.

"I figured it would. These stone chimney's last forever unless someone takes to knockin' 'em down. They're usually solid as they can be."

"They're better than the brick chimney's?" Jack asked.

"That'd be a matter of opinion, I guess, but me, I like the stone chimney's best."

"That other place we looked at, the chimney was brick."

"I remember. It was a lot newer house than this one and by some standards nicer but I think this one fits us better."

"I think you're right. And it don't stink near as bad as it did." Jack said as he got up and closed both doors.

"No, but the stink is still here and you'll notice it more now with the doors closed. Once we get some water goin', we can give the place a good scrubbin' and kill off all that mold then the smell will be gone."

"Right now all I can smell is the wood burnin'." Jack smiled as he added another log to the fire.

"That smells good all right. Pretty soon we can leave the motel and move all our stuff out here."

"You think we should do that before the ninety days are up?"

"You think they'd come out here and throw us off after all the improvements we been makin? I don't. Those papers we signed said they were givin' us possession of the property the day we signed the papers."

"You're probably right about that. I guess I just didn't think about it that way."

"Let's get started. I want to get the holes in the floor measured and get back to Home Depot for the lumber and get started on it. Hopefully, we can get them finished before dark."

They measured the hole in the front room, the one in the bathroom, the one in the hallway and the two in the upstairs bedrooms and took off for town. They came back with five sheets of plywood, two sets of saw horses, two hammers and boxes and boxes of nails and screws and after a debating over it for a spell, a chain saw.

"Ennis, you said yourself, the sooner we get the place in shape the sooner we can move in and that saw is going to save a lot of time keepin' this place stocked with firewood." Jack argued as they headed back out to the ranch.

"I know it will. I just hate spendin' that much money right off."

"We both got jobs and we both got money comin' in. Right now, time is what we don't have much of. And we'll be savin' money by gettin' out of that motel as early as we can."

"You're right. And if we can get the place cleaned up enough this week after work, we could move in over the weekend."

"You think we could get it fixed up that fast workin' only an hour each evenin?"

"I figured we'd just work on the down stairs for now. Main thing will be the scrubbin' of the walls and gettin' rid of all that old wall paper. You know, that wood underneath it looks like that old panelin' they come out with years ago. If it is, we can take the panelin' down, strip and stain it, and while it's down, we can put up some insulation. That'd make a big difference once the snow comes and that wind is icy cold and I think that stripper might kill the mold too and save us the scrubbin'."

"You done all that before?"

"Uh huh. It's easy as pie. The insulation comes in those big pink rolls and you just measure what you need, cut it off and staple it up. You have to buy one of those little staple guns but they aren't that costly."

"Well, I have tomorrow off after I throw the papers so what do you want me to do out here?" Jack asked.

"You gotta be out here for when they come to hook up the electricity. Just have them hook it up to the barn like it is now but not to the house. That will get the pump for the water well goin'. Then get on in to town and find us an electrician. See if you can get him to come out and give us an estimate on re-wirin' the whole place."

"Ok. I can do that. And while I'm waitin' I'm sure I can find somethin' to do."

"You can for a fact, Jack. Let's get this stuff inside. It looks like it might rain and I don't want this wood to get wet."

They hauled everything inside and Ennis got busy and replaced the two upstairs windows and then to work on the floors while Jack got a fire going again and helped where he could.

"It don't make no sense to me why you have to make a hole bigger first before you patch it." Jack said as Ennis started sawin' away on the floor with the hand saw."

"You got to cut it back to the studs to have a place to nail the patch to, Jack, you can't just lay the wood in place and hope it stays there." He measured out the patch and cut it while Jack shook some poison into the hole. In no time, the first patch in the front room floor was finished as Jack helped with the nailing.

"That wasn't so bad." Jack said as they stood up and admired their work. "There's air blowin' in down here," he said as he held his hand out and felt the breeze coming in between the rotted wall boards.

"Yeah, I know. We got a couple of wall boards that need replacin' right there. The bottoms all rotted out where the rain come in. I think the boards in the kitchen are the same stuff. If they are, we can take the ones down behind the cabinets and use them in here and use plywood behind the cabinets."

"We're takin' out the kitchen cabinets?" Jack asked.

"Uh huh. Maybe we'll do that tomorrow night when I get here."

"We gonna buy new ones?"

"Nah. Won't need to. We can just haul them out to the barn so we can strip them."

"Why does that sound so sexy? You think you'll have enough energy left tonight to strip me once we get back to the motel?" Jack asked with a devilish grin.

"Jack Twist! We got work to do!" Ennis said with a grin but he couldn't deny his jeans were tightening at the thought of stripping Jack and having his way with him.

They finished fixing the holes in the floors, the last one being done by lantern light and threw the last of the poison around the outside of the house and headed back to the motel.

They fixed a light supper, showered and fell into bed. The next morning Ennis headed off to work and Jack to his paper route and then out to the ranch. He wandered around a bit and tried to figure out what he could do to make an impression on Ennis when he got there that evening. He went out to the barn and decided he'd move things around so there would be room for the cabinets. He cleared a large area then went back inside and took a closer look at the cabinets to see how big a job it was going to be to get them down.

Once he found out they were just screwed onto the wall, he started removing screws. He took the smallest one down first and it came down easily. That decided him on what he was going to do for the day. The next cabinet was more difficult. He had to break it loose from the many, many coats of paint where it was stuck tight to the wall and with the final jerk the door swung and slammed on his fingers. He was still hopping around and cursing when the man from Sheridan Electric drove up. He stuck his sore hand in his jeans pocket and walked out to greet him.

While the man worked, Jack worked some more on the cabinets deciding first that he'd take the cabinet doors off before he pulled any more down. He was surprised at how much lighter the cabinets were without the doors and they were easier to handle as well.

He marked each door and its matching cabinet so he didn't get them mixed up. By the time the man was finished with the electrics, he had the rest of the upper cabinets taken down and was hauling them out to the barn.

He drove into town to the motel and fixed himself some lunch, thumbing through the phone book while he ate. After several calls he found an electrician who agreed to come out after hours to take a look and give them an estimate on re-wiring the place.

He considered taking a nap but decided instead to go back to the ranch and see if he could get the rest of the cabinets out before Ennis got there. He took his camp stove and cooking gear out with him and pulled out enough canned goods for dinner. He left Ennis a note saying what he had done so Ennis could come right out to the ranch and they would have dinner there and keep on working.

Ennis got there just five minutes before the electrician and was amazed that Jack had managed to get the cabinets down by himself. The only one he left was the one with the kitchen sink and Jack didn't know how to take that one out so he saved it for Ennis to do. Ennis sympathized with Jack and was kissing his bruised fingers when the electrician drove up. They had a fire going in the fire place and Jack had lit all three kerosene lanterns so there was enough light to see.

Jack and Ennis explained what they wanted done and the electrician was shaking his head, yes, and commented that he was glad to hear they were changing out all the wiring. So many people re-doing old homes just up-graded the wiring if anything and often there were fires, he explained. He took one of the lanterns and went up stairs and looked all through the place, determining how much wire would be needed and how long it would take to do the job. Later in front of the fireplace he worked his numbers in his calculator and came up with the price of fifteen hundred dollars.

Ennis gulped and Jack whispered to him, "Is that a lot?"

"Um … do we have to pay it all up front or could we give you half and make the rest in payments?" Ennis asked.

"When you want this done?" The electrician asked.

"Soon as possible."

"Can you wait till the weekend? My old lady is going to be out of town. I could do it then. If you could come up with half by then, and a hundred a month till it's paid, we got a deal."

Jack and Ennis looked at each other and nodded and Jack reached out his hand to shake with the electrician and said, "It's a deal!"

Ennis took the kitchen sink and cabinet out and hauled them out to the barn while Jack fixed diner. Afterwards they set to work taking down two of the wall boards behind where the cabinets had been.

"These are covered with paint. How can you tell it's the same stuff that's in the front room?"

"You can tell by the grooves in the paneling. See up here around the edges? They're about four inches apart just like the ones in the front room."

"Oh. I see. You take down the old boards and toss them and put these in their place and once they're all stained you won't be able to tell the difference?"

"That's all right except that we don't toss the rotted boards. It's only the bottom part that's rotted and up stairs this same panelin' was used too. So in the rooms where we patched the floors and the wall boards are rotted underneath the windows, we can cut enough off of those rotted boards in the front room to replace what's rotted up stairs."

"That would save us trying to go out and match this stuff to buy more when we get to the upstairs." Jack saw the reasoning.

"Exactly. No sense in throwin' anythin' away that we might can use."

"Is the strippin' gonna be very hard?" Jack asked, thinking about all the cabinets in the barn that needed stripping as well as all the wall boards.

Ennis gave him a look.

"Hey now, that was a serious question! I wasn't thinkin' about us strippin' or bein' hard." Jack defended himself.

Ennis hugged him anyway and answered his question as best he could. "There's no guessin' how much time it's goin' to take. It depends on what kind of stripper we get and how well it works in this cold weather and whether or not the stripper will remove the moldin' as well. You can't use it if the weather's below freezin and we don't know how many coats of paint are underneath this shitty wall paper. First we need to get the panelin' down and you gotta be careful not to damage it too much. A little bit of damage, like scratches and nail holes and such, we can just fill in. Before that comes down, we gotta get up all the molding."

"I thought the stripper was gonna take care of that."

"This here, Jack," he bent down and pointed to the base boards and ran his hand along the window frame. "All these little pieces of wood – this is all called molding. It's all gotta come down and be stripped and stained."

"Why would they call skinny pieces of wood after somethin' that stinks?"

"I don't know, Jack. I wasn't around when they was namin' things. I just know that's what these little pieces are called and it's all gotta come off before the panelin'. And we gotta try not to break any more of it than we have to. It will be easy enough to replace 'cause it's just standard molding but its one more expense that we don't need."

"All right – all right. I'll be careful. Where do we start?"

"Back in the front room. I'll show you how to take it off carefully. It's pretty darn old so it may just all splinter but we need to save what we can." He took a screw driver and began carefully prying the base molding loose. The first piece came off easily. The next one splintered. Jack tried his hand and his first piece splintered.

"It's Ok, Jack. This stuff ain't all that expensive. We'll salvage what we can and replace the rest." He reassured Jack and they both got to work and pried off all the molding and stacked it in a neat little pile.

Then they started on the wall boards. They came down easily enough and they stacked them out front.

"Are we gonna strip them there or should we take them out to the barn?" Jack asked as they finished the last one – all the paneling was now removed in the downstairs rooms.

"They need to go out to the barn and then I need to take you home and fuck you." Ennis said as he reached around and squeezed Jack's butt. "I been watchin' that sweet ass of yours all evenin' bendin' over and workin' so hard and all I can think about is gettin' you naked on that bed."

"We could always move this stuff tomorrow and just go back to the motel now." Jack brightened up as the steam rose within him.

"We could. But we got to go out to the barn to lock it up anyway so we might as well carry this stuff out there. We don't wanna leave it out here – it might rain. I'll stop by Home Depot tomorrow and pick up the stripper and insulation so we can get started after work. Maybe we'll get lucky and we won't have to scrub but we'll probably have to use the stripper twice." Ennis picked up a couple of boards and headed for the barn. Jack picked up a couple more and followed him out.

Back at the motel, they lay exhausted in each others arms and lit smokes. "You make me crazy, Jack Twist. We can't start the strippin' tomorrow because you have to put that stuff on, wait an hour and then wipe it off. And we planned to only work one hour each evenin'. I don't know why I didn't think about that when I was talkin' earlier."

"Maybe your mind was on somethin' else?" Jack pressed a kiss behind Ennis' left ear.

"You're sure enough right about that! I don't know how you can breathe in those jeans, they're so tight." Ennis gripped Jack's arm that was flung across his chest.

"I don't breathe out my butt, Cowboy!" Jack snickered.

"Smart ass!" Ennis said and stubbed out his cigarette and dove on Jack and went in for seconds.

****

The rest of the week they worked on spraying down the studs and scrubbing the floor to kill off the rest of the mold. Saturday morning Ennis went straight out to the ranch as Jack had to work.

The electrician showed up early and was impressed that most of the wall boards were taken down. He said it would make his job much easier and it would go a lot faster so while he worked on the downstairs, Ennis spent the morning upstairs pulling down the wall boards up there. They came down a lot easier as there wasn't as much molding nor nearly as many small pieces as there were downstairs.

By the time Jack showed up after work, there was wire stretched out all over the place in every room and the electrician was just leaving promising to be back first thing Sunday morning to finish the job.

Jack walked through the place amazed at the difference in the house already. The smell was almost gone but it still lingered here and there. Ennis assured him that most of it was coming now from upstairs as he hadn't gotten to the stairway or upstairs yet and reminded Jack that they hadn't really gotten rid of the smell, just moved it out to the barn.

"So are we still gonna strip this weekend?" Jack asked with a little grin and his tongue resting in the corner of his mouth.

"Yes, Jack! We're gonna strip wall boards this weekend. Any other kind of strippin' will have to wait until after dark." Ennis insisted.

"Um … Cowboy? It's already dark outside." Jack reminded him.

"So it is!" Ennis grinned and lunged at Jack.

"Shit!" Ennis said afterwards and they lay between the wiring in after glow. "I was plannin' our first time was gonna be all romantic like with our bed rolls opened out in front of the fireplace and here we are wallowin' on the smelly floor."

"We can do that too!" Jack leaned up on his elbows.

"You and that smile of yours – leadin' me into temptation. Are you the devil, Jack Twist?" Ennis ran a hand over Jack's bare chest. "'Cause if you are, I'm ready to hand my soul over to you, no questions asked."

Jack chuckled and nibbled on an earlobe. "It ain't your soul I'm after, Cowboy." Jack's hand wandered down inside Ennis' jeans again and gave a squeeze to show exactly what he was after.

"Oh that thing? That's been yours since he first time you touched it."

"What do you say we continue this back at the motel? We can sleep late in the mornin' and I saw you bought some bacon and eggs for breakfast. We can stay up all night if we want to."

"No, now there you go, Jack, leadin' me into temptation. We gotta get up early and get out here and get to work strippin in the morning and we gotta get this insulation up tonight. It's easy enough to do and won't take all that long." Ennis sat up and tried to fasten his jeans but found it hard to do with Jack's hand still in there.

Jack reluctantly withdrew his hand and stood up, fastening his own jeans while Ennis stood and fastened his.

"Snap up that shirt, Jack. I can't think straight as it is and we still got a coupla hours work ahead of us."

"I'm snappin', I'm snappin'. If I'd a known seein' my naked chest would do it for you, I'd took my shirt off first night up on Brokeback." Jack teased as he tucked his shirt tail in.

"I don't even want to think about those first coupla weeks up on Brokeback – that was pure torture thinkin' about you and wonderin' if you was havin' the same thoughts I was."

"Didn't take us long to figure things out though, did it?" Jack asked with a caress of Ennis' shoulder.

"It sure enough didn't. Thought I was gonna die though when we came down off that mountain."

"Yeah, well we was young and stupid back then."

Two and a half hours later they finished up the downstairs insulation and headed out the door.

"That wasn't so bad. That stuff's kinda itchy though." Jack said as they walked out to their trucks.

"I told you to wear gloves, Jack. That stuff is nasty and gets into your skin. You'll need a good soapin' up in the shower before you get rid of it all."

"That ain't so bad. You could wash my back – or anything else you wanted to." Jack leered at him.

"In that tiny little shower? I don't think so. You be careful drivin' home. Don't get in a rush. We got all night." Ennis said with an inviting smile.

Jack jumped in his truck and burned rubber out of there, throwing dirt and stones and weeds all over the place, as his truck fish-tailed and headed for the gate. Ennis laughed and tore off after him.

Later that night as they lay side by side, caressing one another, Jack said, "Oh, I almost forgot. Remember I told you I had two hot prospects for today?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"I closed them both."

"You what? You sold two more trucks today?" Ennis leaned up on one elbow and stared down at him.

"Nope, one new truck, one new car – roughly about the same price. Some sweet commissions there."

"No kiddin? So when are you gonna start seein' these commissions you been earnin?"

"Commissions get paid first of the month. That's in three days. Don't know whether I got these two in time for this months check. We'll have to see."

"That's great, Jack. I swear, you could sell ice cubes to the Eskimos!" He snuggled back down into Jack's arms and they went to sleep.

****

Ennis woke up the next morning to the smell of coffee and Jack burrowing under the covers and giving him a wake up call – his favorite kind.

"Jack, I swear! It's a wonder I got a drop left in me after last night."

"Well it's the weekend. That's what weekends are for, ain't it?" Jack grinned and handed Ennis a cup of coffee.

"How late is it? You reckon the electrician is already out there?"

"It's goin' on nine o'clock, Cowboy. What time did he get out there yesterday?"

"Nine o'clock!" Ennis jumped out of the bed and got dressed. They grabbed a loaf a bread and the peanut butter and headed out the door.

They were both relieved to find that the electrician wasn't there yet but he came in minutes after they did. They ate their sandwiches in the barn and got started with the stripping.

"Shit!" Jack said. "This stuff stinks worse than the mold does!"

"Yeah, I know its strong smellin' but I'm hopin' it'll take everythin' off along with the wall paper and paint and the rest of that shit. Make sure you put it on nice and thick 'cause if it don't, we still may have to do some scrubbin with the bleach."

"It's worth a try I guess, if it works. I hate these damn rubber gloves though." Jack complained.

"This stuff burns your skin like fire if it gets on it so try not to splash any on to your face."

"My face wasn't what you was worryin' about last night! I think you whisker-burned me from head to toe."

"Jesus, Jack. I'm sorry. I need to start shavin' at night before we go to bed."

"I ain't complainin'. I think I scraped you up some last night too. You looked kinda red in places when you came flyin' up outta that bed naked as a jay bird this mornin'. Are you sore?"

"Maybe just a little. Once we get our place set up, we'll make sure we make time to shave before bed. There ain't no need for us to be markin' each other up."

"Again, Cowboy – I ain't complainin'."

"I know – me neither. It's just something we gotta be careful about. We don't need to be goin' in to work with whisker burn or hickeys all over our necks."

"Agreed. All suckin' should be done where it'll be covered by clothing." Jack grinned, "jeans preferably. Shit! This stuff stinks!"

"It does. Here – why don't you move to this one over here closer to the door. The fumes aren't so bad over here."

"Thanks. Oh, it is better over here. How many are we gonna do today? We gonna try and do them all?"

"No. Just the down stairs rooms. It's been almost an hour since we did the first ones. Let's stop and wipe them and see how much of that shit came off."

"Sounds good to me. Just let me finish this piece first." Jack brushed the vile concoction on the wall board.

"Hey, look at this!" Ennis called to Jack. "It's taking most everythin' off."

Jack finished his board and came over to inspect their work.

"Would you look at that!" Jack was amazed. "That was easy!"

"Uh huh. It stinks to high heaven but the actual labor involved is easy enough." Ennis continued rubbing all the gunk off the board and there were only a few small places that needed going back over again.

"You want me to put some more stripper on those spots?" Jack asked.

"Not yet. We'll wait until we get them all rubbed off and then second coat them where then need it all at once."

"Man! I never thought this stuff would work that good and that fast." Jack was enthused now and grabbed up a rag and started rubbing the next board down. The curled, matted, stinking mess fell away with each swipe of the rag and in no time they had them all in good shape. They dabbed stripper in the spots that hadn't come completely clean and washed up in the barn sink and headed into the house to see how the electrician was coming along.

He was sitting on the hearth figuring out his bill when they came inside. All the wiring was gone and around the parameter of the rooms, power boxes could be seen with shiny new outlets.

"You all done?" Ennis asked as they came in.

"Yep. I figured this to be a two day job but with you removin' all the wall boards, I got done early. I was just figurin' here – looks like it's going to be eleven hundred instead of fifteen. Your hard work saved you a couple hundred."

Jack and Ennis grinned at each other. Ennis went out to the truck to get his check book and came back in with a check for the full amount and handed it to him.

"I thought you was gonna make payments?" The electrician said.

"We was but since you cut the price, we'd rather pay it in full right now so's we don't have another monthly payment to worry about."

"Well, thank you, gentlemen. It's been nice doin' business with you. You need any more work done, you give me a call." He shook both their hands and left.

"We have electricity!" Jack said

"We do for a fact!" Ennis said with a grin. "And all paid for!"

"That's the best part! What else do we need to do before we can move in here?"

"We still don't have hot water and won't have until we can get a plumber out here and our kitchen is non-existant." Ennis said.

"I don't care about that. We can always heat some water to wash with and we're doin' without a kitchen now at the motel and gettin' by – we may as well be doin' without one here and not havin' to pay another week's rent on that room." Jack said.

"We got no bed, no furniture and the place is still a mess." Ennis warned.

"We got our bed rolls – we can curl up here on the floor in front of the fire place. We could hit Goodwill and see what they've got. A couple hundred dollars for necessities maybe but we'd be savin' another seventy five by checkin' out of that motel."

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to drive into town and see what they got." Ennis grinned at Jack's eagerness to move into the place after deeming it ready for the bull dozer such a short time ago.

"Let's do it!" Jack said, wide-eyed and anxious as a kid on Christmas morning.

They headed back to town and hit the Goodwill store first. They found two small electric heaters, a couple large wash tubs sitting in a stand and debated over an old wooden table and chairs coated with several layers of paint, or a newer table with metal legs and composite top that someone had covered with floor tiles with a wooden design. The first table had four chairs, the second had six. Ennis wanted the first one, Jack didn't want either.

"What's wrong with the wooden set?" Ennis asked, lighting a cigarette.

"I know what's gonna happen if we bring that thing home – you're gonna wanna strip it and repaint it."

"Nope." Ennis said.

"You gonna leave it like it is?"

"Nope. Gonna strip it and stain it."

"Oh jeese, Ennis; what's the difference?"

"Big difference between paint and stain – you'll see once we start paintin' the kitchen."

"Maybe I could find somethin' else to do while you're strippin'." Jack said.

Ennis smiled and told the clerk that they wanted the wooden set. Jack wrote out the check, they loaded stuff up and headed for the motel. They piled their belongings into the back of their trucks, checked out of the motel and headed for the ranch.

"Shit!" Ennis groused when it started getting dark. "How come neither of us thought about gettin' any lamps or light bulbs for these ceiling fixtures?"

"I don't know, Cowboy, but these lanterns are fine. I'm off work tomorrow and I can pick us up some lamps."

"Get 'em at Goodwill so you can get 'em cheap. Don't matter what they look like. We can always get rid of them later if we don't like them. Right now all we need is some light."

CHAPTER FOUR

"So what else you gonna do tomorrow besides get us some lamps?" Ennis asked as they sat at their new table after supper.

"Get some light bulbs. You know, most of these rooms have light fixtures in the ceiling. Maybe we can get by with just buying light bulbs."

"They're in bad shape, Jack. This one here above us is cracked and most of the rest of them don't look much better. You see any light fixtures, grab them. I can wire them up."

"You can? Is there anything you can't do, Mr. del Mar?"

"Uh huh. I can't take a hot shower. You won't forget to check on a plumber tomorrow will you?"

"I'll remember. That toilet don't flush worth a damn neither. You gotta flush three times before it takes it all down."

"I know, Jack. And I tried to clean that sink but I think it's been old and nasty since before you and I were born!"

"I know. I think while I'm in town, I'll stop over at Home Depot and see what new fixtures cost. That shower isn't much better than the one at the motel."

"They're about the same age, I'll bet." Ennis said.

"I want a bath tub," Jack said, "a big bath tub – big enough for both of us to soak in at the same time."

"Now, Jack, don't let no salesman get hold of you and sell you everythin' in the store. You know what salesmen are like!" Ennis grinned and got up and put some more wood on the fire.

"A fine bunch of professionals who live for just one thing and that's to close another deal. Don't worry none about me, Cowboy." Jack said as he dragged the washstand out into the middle of the room. With the two little heaters both on and the fire going strong, the room was quite comfortable.

They hooked up the hose they bought to the faucet in the bathroom and started filling their tub. Jack held the hose while Ennis filled their largest pans with water and put them on to heat on their little hot plate. He also filled the electric frying pan and coffee pot to heat.

They filled the tub with about six inches of water then sat and waited for their water to boil. Soon they were naked and scrubbing each other up, laughing and kissing all the way through. They left the tub where it was and scrambled to set up their bed for the night. They opened out both sleeping bags flat on top of one another, and then finished the bed off with the pillows and blankets that Ennis had brought from his trailer and climbed in.

"Ohhhhh this feels good!" Jack shivered against Ennis' naked chest.

"You could always put your clothes back on if you're too cold."

"No, no, no. I wanna be naked when I'm sleepin' with you – just in case you might need me in the middle of the night."

"You think I ain't got no self control? You think I couldn't get in your jeans if I wanted to?" Ennis pulled Jack closer rubbing his arms to warm him up.

"Don't know, don't care – as long as you keep holdin' me like this." Jack whispered.

"I'm gonna hold you like this every night until the day I die, Jack Twist. So you may as well get used to it."

****

Monday morning was a scramble as usual. They made do with toast and coffee for breakfast and took off for town. Ennis worked hard all day before he left for home, he inspected the dented can table in back and picked out half a dozen cans and bagged them up. He was just about to leave when the produce manager brought in a cart loaded down with vegetables and fruit.

"You the new guy who works the fork lift?" He asked.

"I am. Name's Ennis – Ennis del Mar." He reached out a hand for a shake.

"I'm Norm Wheeler. I seen you around here. You want any of this stuff? It ain't bad, just a bit passed its prime."

"It looks good to me. You puttin' it on the free table?"

"I am. I usually do this in the morning but got a late start today. If you want any of it, help yourself. Take it all if you want. There's lettuce and cabbage and carrots and spinach and onions and tomatoes and some fruit."

"Don't you want to take some of it home?" Ennis asked him.

"Nah. I eat fast food mostly. I don't care much for vegetables unless it's French fries."

"Won't the others get mad if I took it all? I don't wanna make anyone mad."

"Nah. Sherry, one of the check out girls, takes home most of the produce that hits this table, but she's off sick today. No sense letting it sit here and go bad. If you can use it, take it." With that he left and got back to work.

Ennis waited around some to see if anyone else showed any interest in it and when no one did, he got another couple paper bags and filled them full. He stashed them in the back of his truck while he threw his paper route then headed home. He drove up to the well-lit house and heard music playing. "Oh Jack fuckin' Twist – what did you do?" he whispered into the darkness as he unloaded the groceries.

Jack came out to greet him with a hug and they hurried inside as the wind got up. I see you found a lamp or two." Ennis gazed around a the four lamps that were burning brightly, two in the dining room and two more in the front room across the way.

"Yep. I got 'em at Goodwill for five dollars a piece. Look what else I got." He pointed over to a corner of the dining room at a refrigerator. "Got it at Goodwill too. Paid fifty for it but it's got a nice freezer on top and it cools great and everything. The only thing I could find wrong with it is the bottom shelf. The little bracket thing that holds it on one side is gone so that shelf is useless."

"That'd be easy enough to fix. We can just stick somethin' in there to hold up the shelf. How'd you get it here?"

"The man over at Goodwill loaned me the appliance dolly. He showed me how it worked and how to get it off a my truck."

"That was nice of him."

"You ain't mad at me then for spendin' fifty for it? I know we didn't say nothin' about getting a fridge but we won't have to be buyin' ice every day now."

"No, Jack. We need a fridge and this is a good buy at fifty. You did good." Jack beamed with pride.

"Where's the music comin' from. You didn't go out and buy a stereo, did you?" Ennis looked around for the source of the music.

"No. It's my old transistor. I dropped my pencil in the truck this morning and when I bent down to get it, I saw the radio stickin' out from under the seat. I thought I'd lost it. I did buy some new batteries for it though. You bought more groceries?" He asked as Ennis sat the bags down on the table.

"Nope. These were all on the free table. Produce manager, a guy named Norm, came over while I was goin' through the cans and told me to take them all if I wanted them. We can use all this stuff, Jack. I got a few more dented cans too."

"And you didn't have to pay for none of this?"

"Nope. They give it to me for free." Ennis folded the bags neatly in case they needed them for something.

"You can't beat that!" Jack said as he stirred the stew he was heating up.

"Did you see a plumber today?" Ennis asked as he sat down at the table and pulled his boots off.

"I did. He'll be here tomorrow evening at seven thirty."

"Good. That stew about ready? I'm about to pass out I'm so hungry!"

****

He nearly did pass out the next evening when he got the estimate for the plumbing. Twenty eight hundred dollars! He plopped down in a kitchen chair and stared at the figures the plumber left with them.

"Maybe we can do just a little bit of it at a time? We could get by with the old fixtures and just the downstairs bathroom for a coupla years and we don't really need hook ups for a washer and dryer or an up-stairs bathroom."

"Ennis, those old bathroom fixtures are garbage! That tub had a big hole in it so we can't use it, the shower is mainly a pile of rust just leanin' together and there ain't no amount of scrubbin' that's gonna make that sink or the toilet any where near clean! And the kitchen sink is just as bad."

"Shit, Jack! That's almost everything we got left in the bank!"

"Maybe he'll let us pay half down and make payments on the rest? I know you hate doin' that – I do too but we need new fixtures, Ennis, and we need that new bathroom upstairs. Otherwise, we'd have to come down stairs to clean up every time. I know it's a lot of money but I think it'll be worth every penny."

"Well let's don't make any decision right away. Maybe we could get out over the weekend and hit some of these second-hand places and see if we can find some used fixtures."

"All right. We can do that. I'm ready for bed – are you?"

"Yeah. We need to sleep on this. I just hate like the dickens to spend every penny we got."

"So do I, Cowboy, so do I!"

****

The next evening after work, Jack met Ennis at the door with a big grin on his face. "Hey, Cowboy, you hungry?"

"Are we talkin' food here?" Ennis grinned back and hung his jacket and hat on the nail beside the doorway, next to Jack's.

"We are! And I'm fixin' us somethin' special so don't get mad." He gave Ennis a hug and led him over the table that was already set.

"Why would I get mad? Smells great." Ennis took the beer Jack opened for him.

"Cause I bought us steaks! By the time you get washed up, dinner will be ready."

"Thought that's what I smelled. It's Ok we get steaks once in a while. We just can't be spendin' money on steaks all the time." He leaned in and gave Jack a kiss and headed for their make-do bathroom to clean up.

The steaks were perfect, the roasting ears were perfect and the salad was perfect. Even the bread was well shaped and not the usual mangled day-old stuff from the free table that they usually ate.

"That was delicious, Jack. You're turnin' out to be a fine cook." Ennis opened them each another beer and sat back down.

"It ain't all that hard." Jack smiled at the compliment.

"You got somethin' else on your mind, Bud?"

"You can see right through me, can't you?" Jack said as he scooted his chair over closer to Ennis'.

"Most times. You been grinin' since I come through that door. You wanna tell me what that's all about?"

"I saw the plumber today and told him to come on out here and get started as soon as he can."

"Jack, I thought we was gonna talk about it some more – go lookin' for some second-hand fixtures. Remember we talked about not wantin' to use up all our cash money on plumbin'?"

"I do. I remember all that." Jack took a deep breath then said, "I got my commission check today. First one. And I'll have more comin' next month 'cause I sold another truck today and got some hot prospects for another truck and a Mustang."

"I'm proud for you, Jack, but we talked about this."

"We did. And what we both agreed on was that we needed that up-stairs bathroom and we didn't want to empty our bank accounts. Ennis, my check was a big one. Big enough to pay the plumber in full and even upgrade a bit and still have some left over."

"You got that much just for sellin' stuff?"

"I did. I got it first thing this mornin' and on my lunch hour I went to see the plumber. I paid him half down and told him I'd give him the rest when the job was finished and I still got six hundred over."

"Jack! I … that's wonderful!" Ennis hugged him hard and pounded him on the back. "I never dreamed that commissions were that high! I figured you might get a coupla hundred."

"Depends on which vehicle they buy but I get a percentage of each and every sale I make. 'Course, most of these sales are Christmas presents and I'm sure it will slack off once the holidays are over but for right now, sales are up and people are buyin'. Mostly we'll have to get by on my base pay, which ain't much but with my paper route and what you're bringin' in – I'd say we're doin' all right."

"I'd say we're doin' more than all right. Jeeze, Jack. I was hopin' we could afford one bathroom and now we're gonna have two!"

"Yep. Two's what we need. Our bedrooms are gonna be up-stairs so we needed one up there as well as the one down here. I was thinkin' that with what I got left, and maybe takin' just that much again out of our savin's we could buy us a couple of beds. What do you think?"

"You gettin' tired of sleepin' on the floor?" Ennis grinned at him.

"Yeah, kind of. Aren't you?"

"Uh huh. Beds are a good idea. We could probably pick some up at Goodwill though – save some money."

"I don't mind gettin' bed frames there but I want us to have new mattresses. I don't want some smelly old bed like what you see in motels. I want one that nobody's never done nothin' on."

"Sounds fair enough. So instead of lookin' for plumbin' fixtures this weekend, we'll be bed huntin'?"

"Uh huh. Then celebratin' once we get them set up."

"And I expect you'll be needin' to buy lots of sheets and stuff?"

"Not lots. I figured two sets a piece plus some pillows is all – nothin' fancy."

"I can see you're gonna be a high maintenance investment here." Ennis grinned and ran his fingers through Jack's hair, smoothing it back down.

"It's gonna be worth it, Cowboy, I promise you that!"

"You been makin' me lots of promises lately, Jack."

"And I aim at keepin' every single one."

"Never had no idea that livin' together could be this good, Bud." Ennis said as they cleared the table and washed the dishes in the wash tubs.

"Next commission check, we'll get to work on the kitchen – new stove and refrigerator and freezer and stuff and a washer and a dryer. I fuckin' hate washin' stuff out by hand."

Ennis grunted in agreement then said, "I agree about the washer and dryer and a stove but we don't need no freezer yet, not till next fall when we harvest our garden and we already got a refrigerator." Then he added, "You got any idea when the plumber will be out here?"

"Not yet. He said he'd call when he could schedule the work. He said it would take him and his helper a couple of days to do the job."

"That's great! Gives us time to get the wall boards stained and back up. You ready for bed?"

"Uh huh," Jack answered and they unrolled their bed.

"It sure will be nice to be able to sleep in a bed again."

"Sure enough," Ennis agreed.

"So what color are we going to paint the kitchen?" Jack asked as he turned on his side and snuggled in closer.

"I was thinkin' maybe yellow – kinda a light yellow, like buttercups in the springtime."

"I'd like that. Momma said her kitchen used to be yellow though I don't remember it never bein' anythin' but white-wash that Pa mixed up out in the barn. She said the house was real pretty when she was a girl."

"Well I don't know much about 'pretty' but I think it would look good yellow."

"Me too. We gonna paint the cabinets yellow too?"

"Nope. I was thinkin' we'd paint 'em white and a white ceiling. You think that'd be Ok?"

"I like it, Cowboy! It's gonna look great. When you figure we can start on the paintin?"

"We should be able to get the paneling up the next couple of nights. I can stop and pick up the paint Friday after work so we should be able to get to it over the weekend."

"We'll be busy this weekend, gettin' our new beds and all."

"Uh huh. If we get an early start Saturday, we can get out and get our beds in the morning and paint the cabinets in the afternoon and the kitchen in the evening. That'll give us Sunday to get the cabinets back up and ready for the plumber to install the sink on Monday."

"Sounds like we got our weekend all planned and it's only Tuesday. I'm tired already just thinkin' about it." Jack sighed and leaned his head against Ennis' back.

"That ain't why you're tired, Bud. You gave me a good workout tonight."

"I did for a fact! Sleepy now though."

"Me too. Sleep well, Jack. Stay close."

"Mmmmm You too."

****

Friday night came and Ennis got home first for a change. He was now well used to his paper route now and threw it with ease. Traffic was light and he made it home a little past six. He put the groceries away, cleaned up some and started dinner. He was looking forward to having a real kitchen again.

He started a fire in the fire place and sat in front of it for a while in a lawn chair and thought about how far they had come in the short weeks they had been there. The house was coming along nicely and with the help of the fireplace and the small electric heaters, the house was nice and snug. He had re-caulked all the old windows to keep them from rattling and most of the smell was gone.

He let his mind wander a bit to the coming year and wondered what it would bring. The weather man was forecasting a mild winter and he hoped that was true and that their roof would hold out until next summer. Spring would be a very busy time for them. He'd have to get that tractor working or agree to buy a new one on time – which he didn't want to do. And then there would be the working of the land and the planting. They'd need to get a garden going and he wanted good grass established by fall when they go to market for their first cows. He hoped they could find a few riding horses too. He knew they would have to wait a while before they could afford a new stallion and some breeding mares but he was a patient man. Maybe they could pick up a pregnant mare at auction and she'll have a colt. The planning, the hopes and the dreams went on and on.

Dinner was ready and he got up to turn the hot plate off. He glanced at his watch and it was after seven. Jack should be there any minute. He got bowls out and set the table, opened a beer and sat back down in front of the fire with his boots up on the hearth, ankles crossed. Christmas was just around the corner and this would be their first Christmas together. He smiled at the thought. He hoped there was snow by then. It sure was cold enough, down in the twenties and getting colder every day.

Maybe they should cut a tree! They could set it up right by the window. They could probably pick up some decorations at Goodwill for a few bucks. He smiled at the thought of him and Jack decorating the tree together.

He jumped when he heard the crunch of tires on their stone littered driveway. He smiled as he opened the door and Jack was in his arms, all red-nosed from the cold and excited about something.

"Man, that smells good! I'm starvin'. When do we eat?" Jack asked as he warmed his hands by the fire.

"Whenever you bring your sweet ass over here and sit down." Ennis said as he dished up the stew.

"Gotta wash first," Jack said and disappeared into the bathroom. When he came out Ennis handed him a beer and they sat down to eat.

"It's gonna freeze tonight for sure. Bet we get some snow. What do you think?" Jack asked between bites.

"Don't know. Haven't noticed any snow clouds around." Ennis answered and just sat a while watching Jack eat.

"What?" Jack asked. "I got stew on my face or somethin?"

"No. I was just thinkin'."

"Bout what?"

"Christmas. This will be our first Christmas together. We been knowin' each other near twenty years now and we never spent a holiday together." Ennis finished the last few bites of stew before Jack answered.

"Uh huh. I was thinkin' about that earlier myself."

"You wanna … put up a tree? We got lots of little pine out back. Wouldn't hurt to take one down."

"A tree? That would be great! I'd love it!" Jack wiped his mouth on a paper napkin. "Can we do it tomorrow?"

"We got a lot planned for tomorrow. Maybe after we get back from buyin' our beds we can take a quick look around and see if we can find one before we get to painting."

"What about decorations?" Jack asked – his excitement growing by the minute.

"All the stores are stayin' open late now 'cause of Christmas. We could go into town tonight. We need to pick up the new hardware for the cabinets anyway."

"We can buy new ornaments?" Jack's eyes lit up.

"A few wouldn't hurt. They aren't all that costly. We can't go overboard now."

"No we won't. Just some lights and some colored balls and some of that dangly stuff." Jack jumped up and went for his jacket.

"Hold on now. Let's do the dishes first." Ennis grinned, enjoying the moment immensely. "We got plenty of time."

"Ok, Ok. Are you finished? Let me take your bowl. I'll wash and you can dry."

Fifteen minutes later they were in the truck heading for town – Jack as eager as a school boy and Ennis enjoying himself just as much.

"We need to set us a budget here and agree not to go over it – maybe one string of lights, one or two packages of balls and some of that rope-like stuff. That ought to be enough. We can buy a few more each year and we'll have plenty." Ennis said.

"Sure. Whatever you say." Jack agreed as he pulled his truck into the K-Mart parking lot. They waded into the crowded store and found all the Christmas decorations were fifty percent off so they doubled what they had planned on buying and added some extras like a star for the top of the tree and a snowy-looking cloth to place under it and a red metal stand to hold it.

They ended up spending twice what Ennis had thought they would but Jack was enjoying himself so much, and he was enjoying watching Jack so much, that he didn't even complain about it.

Jack wanted to go out with their lanterns and look for a tree but by the time they got back to the ranch it was raining so they just went inside and opened all the ornaments and looked at them one by one, then decided to go to bed early – neither of them all that tired but both of them just wanting to lay there and hold onto each other. Their first Christmas was little over a week away!

***

They woke up late the next morning, grabbed a quick breakfast and set the heaters up in the kitchen to warm it up then headed into town to find some beds. Goodwill had nothing that they wanted so they headed on over to Sears and picked out mattresses, box springs and bed frames. That done and paid for, they headed for the linen department and bought

mattress pads, sheets, pillows, and a few more blankets.

Ennis was a bit wary about spending that much money on just a place to sleep but he offered no objections as Jack made the selections and paid for it all. They were both too excited about getting home and looking for a tree.

They hauled all their purchases inside and then up-stairs. It seemed a bit odd setting the new beds up in the two rooms next to each other. They knew they'd be using them one at a time but thought the arrangement was best with workmen coming in and out of the house.

They had scrubbed the floors and cleaned the rooms the best they could but they were mainly wall studs and pink insulation. With the temperature hovering just below freezing they would have to wait a while before they could strip the wall boards and get them put back up.

"You know, I think I can tell the difference already with this insulation. It's a lot warmer up here than it was when we first got the place." Jack commented as they made up the beds.

"Yep. That and all the caulking we done around the windows and fillin' up the holes we found in the aluminum siding. Every little bit makes a difference."

"Well these beds are gonna make a big difference. That's for sure. You wanna try one out?"

"I was considerin' it but if you want to find us a tree before we start paintin' we'd better get started."

"Oh shit, yeah. We got a lot of work cut out for us today. But we're gonna sleep good tonight!" Jack said as he followed Ennis down the stairs.

"Uh huh. We gotta remember to take one of them heaters up there so we don't freeze our asses off." Ennis said as he wadded up all the plastic wrap that the beds were wrapped in. "I'll haul this shit out to the burn barrel, you get your truck and meet me at the barn."

"You got it." Jack said as he grabbed his jacket and hurried out the front door.

Ennis dumped the trash then hit the barn for their axe. Jack picked him up and they headed towards the back of the property to find a tree. It took over an hour looking at every tree on the place before they settled on one – way bigger than Ennis had imagined. Ennis chopped until it was down and Jack lifted it into the back of their pickup. It took a little more work with the saw when they got it back to the house but they finally got it into the stand and standing tall in their front room – right in front of the window.

There was no containing Jack from that point on until every ornament was on the tree and the lights were turned on. Jack stared at it wide-eyed and Ennis gulped at the sight. Their first Christmas tree! It was the most beautiful sight either of them had ever seen!

They ate their lunch in the lawn chairs sitting in front of the tree. It was just passed noon before Ennis managed to drag Jack away and they got started on the kitchen cabinets.

"This stuff don't smell bad at all," Jack commented.

"Nah. It's nothin' like that stain. This stuff goes on real smooth and we don't need no gloves – it washes right off your hands."

The cabinets received two coats of paint and then they rested with an early dinner in front of the fire and staring at their lighted tree.

"I could sit here all night and just stare at that tree." Jack said.

"Yeah, me too but we gotta finish the kitchen." Ennis agreed.

"That shouldn't take too long, should it?" Jack asked hopefully.

"Depends on how long we lolly-gag here and put of startin'." Ennis teased.

"All right. Let's get after it." Jack got up reluctantly and they got started – Ennis using the white paint and Jack the yellow.

"I just can't believe this is the same house." Jack said as he rolled the paint onto the walls while Ennis concentrated on the ceiling. "I like this yellow. It's perfect."

"I think it's gonna look pretty good with the white cabinets." Ennis said.

"So which room are we gonna do next?" Jack asked as he dipped his roller in the tray and went back up on the wall again.

"Dining room or bathrooms – it's your choice."

"They're both important but I'm thinkin' the bathrooms. We'll have those nice new fixtures in place and all. I think the bathroom should be next."

"So did we agree on light green for in there?" Ennis asked.

"Uh huh. Sage green is what they call it."

"Ok. I'll pick some up next payday."

"It's gonna be so nice to be able to take a bath again. There ain't nothin' like soakin' in a tub of hot water when it's snowin' outside."

"At least we've got hot water now."

"Yeah! That beats the hell outta heatin' it up on the little hot plate. And you agreed that we can spend some of our savin's on appliances?" Jack asked.

"Uh huh. We need a stove and a washer and a dryer." Ennis agreed.

"Seems every store in town is havin' big sales. Maybe we should go ahead and get them so we can have them here and ready to install when the plumber is finished?"

"We'll see how much time it takes us to install the cabinets tomorrow. If we get some time after, we could make a run into town and see about 'em." Ennis agreed, wiping paint droplets off his cheek.

"Can't see that it would take all that long – they came down easy enough."

"Yep and we'll be putting them back up exactly where they was originally. I'm sure proud of you that you thought to mark each one where it belonged."

"I wasn't sure if I needed to do that or not but I figured it was better to be safe. And I found out the hard way that it's easier and safer to handle them without the doors on."

"They should go back up easy enough. I like the new hinges we picked out. They should work out just fine."

"The old ones were rusted out so bad some of those doors didn't hardly open. I'm glad you agreed to all new hardware. I know it was an extra expense that you hadn't counted on but it's going to make them look like brand new cabinets instead of just old ones re-done."

"Well you saved us a coupla hundred dollars findin' that fridge for only fifty bucks so it didn't put us over the budget we set for the kitchen."

"Then all we gotta do is the floor in here." Jack said.

"Yep. I really like the wood floors but that's way over our budget. I think the tile will be fine for now. We can always re-do the floors later on down the road."

"And you know how to put them tile squares down?"

"Easy as pie, Jack. Hardest part of doin' that is spendin all that time down on your knees."

"I don't mind bein' on my knees. In fact I kinda like it." Jack grinned at him.

"Jack Twist! PAINT! And don't be thinkin' such things when we got all this work to do."

"What? I can't even think about bein' on my knees in front of you?"

"NO! Not while we're paintin'." Ennis said as he climbed down from the ladder after finishing the brush work all around the edges of the ceiling. He walked over behind Jack, put his arms around him and pressed up tight against him. "Besides – it's my turn to be on my knees." He nuzzled the side of Jack's neck and sucked on his ear lobe.

"Hey! I'll give you one minute to cut that out!" Jack leaned back into the embrace. "Wait, no – make that an hour. I'll give you one hour to cut that out."

"Mmmmm. We gotta get this room finished, Bud, and get ourselves up-stairs and into bed."

"You keep rubbin' against me like that and we won't need the bed." Jack said as all painting stopped.

They kissed a few times, long lingering kisses before Ennis pulled back. "Paint! We're supposed to be paintin'." He got his roller and dunked it into the tray of white paint and got to work finishing off the ceiling.

"Don't you go splattering on my fine yellow walls." Jack warned.

"I'm tryin'. You watch that you don't get none of that yellow paint on my ceilin."

"And if I do?" Jack challenged.

"You don't wanna know the penalty for that. It's severe – believe me."

"Oh yeah? What're ya gonna do?" Jack asked and touched the tip of his roller filled with yellow paint up against the fresh white paint on the ceiling.

Ennis stared at him for a moment, dropped his roller into the paint tray and tackled him. It was late evening before they finally finished the painting with the light from the lamps they brought in and they stood there, arms around each other, admiring their work.

"Ceiling looks great," Jack said, leaning his head back against Ennis' shoulder.

"Yep. Walls do too. Didn't think we was ever gonna get that boot mark off the wall though." Ennis grinned.

"We shoulda left it there! I kinda liked it."

"Nope. We agreed – no marks anywhere where they can be seen."

"I thought that was just for each other?"

"Jack, a boot mark on the wall would be a red flag to anyone who happened to be in our kitchen."

"Can we put one in our bedroom? Won't nobody be in there but the two of us."

"Jack!"

"Ok. Whatever you say." Jack turned around in Ennis' arms and kissed him hard. "Can we go to bed now?"

"I think that's a fine idea!" Ennis agreed.

CHAPTER FIVE

A couple weeks later the plumbers finally made it out to the ranch to do their work.

Jack paced the floor watching the plumbers work and worried that Ennis was going to be mad when he saw the 'minor' up-grades to the plumbing that he had paid for. The biggest problem was getting that whirlpool tub up the stairs. He had to help them and he was glad afterwards that they hadn't done any work on the stair way walls because they sure dinged them up some getting the huge tub up there. Then they had to take the door down and the trim off the doorway to get it in the room they had decided to make into their up-stairs bathroom.

Once they got it into the room, Jack went back downstairs and paced some more. He worried that for some reason Ennis might come home early and make them take it back. He figured it would be safe enough once they had it installed. He had managed to take the afternoon off, explaining to his boss that the plumbers were going to be there to finish up the job they had started the day before on his day off.

Finally it was done and the plumbers left with their final check – the job paid for in full. Jack walked back into the kitchen and ran a hand along their new double sink and turned the water on and off with their new faucet and smiled. "This is going to be so great! No more washing dishes in that filthy old bathroom sink." He walked into the down stairs bathroom and admired the new porcelain fixtures with a smile and wiped a smudge off the new faucet. Then it was on into the next room that the original owners had been using for a down-stairs bedroom. They had it made into a laundry room and the new washer; dryer connections gleamed in wait for the new appliances.

He took the stairs slowly, noticing the fresh marks on the walls and figured they would be easy enough to cover once they got around to it. He walked slowly passed their two bedrooms and into the new bathroom. "It's fuckin' perfect!" He said as he sat down on the edge of the tub and looked around. "Ennis is gonna kill me!"

"Oh well, if he's gonna kill me, I may as well make it worth my while!" He tore down the stairs and out to his truck, pulling his parka closed against the wind. He drove into town, eyeing his watch and figured he'd have just about enough time to put his plan into action before Ennis got home.

****

Ennis drove up to the house and got out of his truck thinking they might should see if they could get their trucks both in the barn once the snow starts and that shouldn't be too far off from the feel of that wind.

Something sure smelled good he thought as he reached for the door knob. Jack opened the door before he had a chance to and ushered him inside with a smile and a bottle of beer.

"Somethin' sure smells good." He said nuzzling his cold nose up against Jack's neck.

"Come over here by the fire, Cowboy, and let me warm you up."

Ennis took his jacket off and hung it on the nail beside the door along with his hat and joined Jack in front of the fire.

"You sure are nice to come home to." Ennis smiled at him. "What's cookin?"

"A roast. This is a special occasion so I thought we'd celebrate. I can hardly wait to show you all the great work the plumbers did." He gulped just a bit.

"Oh yeah? Kitchen nice?"

"Uh huh."

"Just like we planned it?"

"Uh huh."

"Laundry room Ok?"

"Uh huh."

"Bathroom?"

"Yep."

"So what is it you ain't tellin' me?"

"I'm tellin' you everythin'. It's all great. You'll see." Jack said but had to cut his eyes away and Ennis caught it.

"Think maybe I'd better take a look around." He took another long swig of beer and watched as Jack kind of twitched.

"Come look at the kitchen first. You'll love it. The stove is perfect and so is the new sink." Jack pulled him by the arm into the kitchen. "I got a roast beef goin' in here with onions, potatoes and carrots." He said as he lifted the lid for Ennis to take a look.

"Smells delicious." Ennis said and noticing the pink bakery box asked, "What's in the box?"

"Chocolate cake for desert but you have to eat all your vegetables first." Jack grinned at his lame joke.

"I think I can handle that." Ennis said as he walked out and into the bathroom across the hallway, eyeing Jack all the way. Something was bothering him, he was sure of that.

"You like it? It's exactly the way you wanted it. Same fixtures you picked out. They look great in here, don't they?"

"Uh huh." Ennis agreed, happy to see the last of the old rusted out fixtures and happier still that the plumber had agreed to dispose of the old ones for them so they didn't have to worry with hauling them to the dump.

"Upstairs bathroom Ok?" Ennis asked after a quick peek into the laundry room as he headed for the stairs.

"Uh huh." Jack reached the stairs first and went up slowly ahead of him, turning around and talking most of the way. "Remember, when I got that commission check, I told you I made a few minor upgrades?"

"I remember." Ennis was beginning to get the picture.

"Well … eh … I upgraded the fixtures just a bit in this bathroom. I figured we'd be using it most."

"Jack … what did you do?" They stopped outside the closed bathroom door.

"It's already paid for … so we don't have to worry none about payments or nothin'." Jack stood with his back to the door.

"Jack …" Ennis locked eyes with him and wondered what he was going to see when he opened the door.

"Ennis, it's perfect! Just … remember that I love you and that killin's against the law." He stepped aside and Ennis reached for the door knob. He hesitated just a minute then opened the door.

His first thought was that it looked like something out of a magazine with the exception of the walls needing painting. Two free-standing porcelain sinks stood off to the right, each with a medicine cabinet/mirror above it and with a gleaming chrome towel rack in between stacked with thick towels. The toilet off to the left, another chrome shelf unit stacked with towels next to it and dead ahead, was the biggest bath tub he had ever seen in his life filled with steaming water. Jack pressed the button and the water began gently swirling around. A thick plush rug covered most of the floor.

He stared in stunned amazement as Jack made his way around the room with his cigarette lighter and lit all the candles that littered every place one could possibly sit. Jack removed his sweat shirt, dropped his jeans and stepped into the tub, reaching out a hand to Ennis.

"Holy fuckin' shit!" Ennis whispered as he stripped and climbed into the tub with Jack.

"You ain't mad?" Jack asked as he pulled Ennis back against him.

"I don't wanna know how you did this – I don't wanna know anything but that it's paid for and we get to keep it."

"Thank you sweet Jesus!" Jack whispered a prayer of thanks as he leaned his cheek down against Ennis' head. "It's all paid for, Cowboy, every bit of it. The big stuff was paid for with that commission check. The little stuff, I admit, cost me a weeks pay but it's worth it. I'm so glad you're not mad."

"Jack, I ain't never been in a bathroom like this before. It's like somethin outta a movie or somethin'."

"I'm so glad you like it."

"The plumber didn't say nothin' about puttin' somethin' like this in?"

"Nope. Said he had one just like it at home – said it was great for his wife's arthritis."

"That why you wanted it, Jack? You got arthritis?" Ennis turned around and kissed him.

"Nope. I got Ennisitis."

They ended up eating peanut butter sandwiches for dinner – the roast was burned beyond eating by the time they got back down stairs but they didn't care. It was all too good.

****

The rest of the week they spent getting ready for Christmas the coming Monday. They had agreed that the tree did need some gifts underneath it and agreed that they could spend one hundred dollars each on gifts for the other and bravely tackled the crowds in the stores after work and in separate rooms they wrestled with rolls of colored paper, scotch tape and curling ribbon until all the gifts were wrapped and under the tree.

Friday night after work, Ennis stopped at the Home Depot and picked up the paint for both bathrooms. Now that they had two bathrooms with gleaming new fixtures, they were anxious to get them painted.

Ennis made it home first and brought the paint inside and started a fire. He rubbed his hands together to warm them after turning the tree lights on. He stared at the presents under the tree and hoped that Jack would like what he got for him.

He opened a beer and sat down in his lawn chair in front of the fire and thought that they really needed to get a couch. Maybe in a couple of months they would start looking around. They'd try Goodwill first to see if they could find anything there and there were a few used furniture stores in town they could try. Jack did so good finding that refrigerator, he was sure they could find some used furniture at a reasonable price as well.

He took his empty beer bottle to the trash and opened another one while he mixed up some of Jack's favorite macaroni and cheese and opened a package of hot dogs and dumped them in a pan of water while he set the table and waited for Jack.

He looked at his watch noticing it was just passed seven thirty. "He's probably got a last minute customer," Ennis thought as he sat back down and waited. By eight o'clock he was getting a little anxious. He turned the stove off, figuring they could reheat it when Jack got there. With a grin, he hoped Jack wasn't out buying the shops out.

By the time nine o'clock rolled around he told himself Jack would **have** to be coming home now as all the shops in town closed by nine. He paced the floor and waited. Nine twenty came, nine thirty – at nine forty five he grabbed up his jacket, pulled his knit cap down over his ears and headed for town.

He scanned all along the sides of the road, afraid Jack might have had an accident. He wasn't sure where to start once he made it into town and he cruised through the night spot district thinking that maybe Jack had met someone there trying to close one more deal before the holiday. He was already formulating the lecture he was going to give him about staying out so late and worrying him half to death. Jack's truck was no where to be found.

He decided to drive over to the dealership, though he knew it was sure to be closed. Maybe Jack was still there doing paper work or something and lost track of time. He'd lecture him good once he got his hands on him about watching the time more carefully.

There is was – Jack's truck still parked in the parking lot where he always parked. Ennis got out and checked it out. It was locked up tight. He turned his attention to the building then and went and knocked hard on the glass door as he peered into the darkened showroom. There was no answer. He walked around to the side of the building and knocked on that door as well. No Answer. He circled the building knocking on doors and windows but all was dark inside and there was no sign that anyone was there at all.

He went back to his truck and waited. He smoked until his cigarettes were gone and then he waited some more. He got out of the truck and walked around a bit. He stopped and took a piss back behind the building then walked back to his truck again. He sat and waited.

The next thing he knew the sun was shining in his eyes and he came full awake. It was morning and Jack's truck was still sitting there. It was seven am and raining. He could see a fast food place half a block away so he drove there, went inside and relieved himself and ordered coffee then drove back to the dealership and waited.

****

"Mr. Callahan?" Ennis was through the front door as soon as the dealership was opened – 9am sharp.

"Yes sir, what can I do for you?" The tall gray-haired man held out his hand.

Ennis took it and introduced himself. "My name is Ennis. Ennis del Mar. I'm Jack Twist's partner out at the ranch."

"Oh yes. Jack's mentioned you."

"I was wonderin' – do you know where Jack is?"

"Jack? Well no – he's not scheduled to work today. He worked last Saturday."

"Yes, I know. But … I'm kinda worried. He didn't show up out at the ranch last night. Was he workin' on somethin' late maybe?"

"No – not that I'm aware of. He didn't come home at all?"

"No sir, and I see his truck is still in the parkin' lot."

"It is? I guess I didn't even notice that. Hmmmm. You haven't seen or heard from him?"

"No sir and I'm gettin' plenty worried. We had some paintin' we was gonna do today and it's not like Jack to just take off without tellin' me."

"Well now that is strange, isn't it? No, that's not like Jack at all. Let me check with Robin. She was still here yesterday afternoon when I left. I'll see if she knows anything."

Callahan headed for the receptionist's desk and Ennis waited. He paced the floor, glancing now and then out the window into the parking lot at Jack's truck.

Callahan came back a few minutes later, his forehead knitted in a frown.

"What is it?" Ennis asked.

"She says two men came in just before closing time and asked for Jack. She pointed them to his office and went on home. That's all she knows."

"Two men? That's all she said?"

"She said they were drivin' a van – a van with Texas license plates."

A cold chill ran down Ennis' spine as the two of them stared at each other.

"Didn't he used to live down there?"

"Uh huh."

"I don't like the sound of this. Isn't that where his ex-wife and boy live?"

"Uh huh." Ennis was frozen rigid with fear.

"He wouldn't have just taken off like that – not without tellin' anybody. And why would he leave his truck behind? He loves that truck!" Callahan was pacing the floor now.

"I gotta go." Ennis said. He stopped at the doorway and turned back. "I'm gonna go bring him home. I gotta take his truck. I doubt mine will make it to Texas and back."

"Sure thing. Do you have keys? I can get one of my boys open it for you if you need me to."

"I got keys. I gotta leave my truck here, if that's all right?"

"Certainly. You really think his ex's people came up here and got him?"

"It looks that way." Ennis was fishing his keys out of his pocket.

"I think we should call the police."

"No need for that. I'll take care of this." Ennis headed out to the parking lot and Callahan followed him.

"What on earth do they hope to accomplish by doing something like this? They think they can force Jack to move back to Texas?"

"I don't know but I'm bringin' him back."

"Are you sure you don't want me to call in the law? This kinda thing is illegal – they can't just do something like this and think they can get away with it."

"I'll take care of it. Jack may not be back to work for a while though. Can you hold his job for him if he's off a coupla extra days?"

"Oh sure, that's not a problem. Shit, I wish I could go with you. You be careful now and you might want to get in touch with the law when you get down there to Texas."

Ennis got in Jack's truck and drove away. He headed out to the ranch first. He put a pot of coffee on then hurried up-stairs. He threw a few things in his bag and pulled the string closed. Then opened it again and got some of Jack's things and threw them in too. He grabbed his hunting rifle and headed down stairs. He stopped in the kitchen, grabbed a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and a knife, and filled their five gallon water jug, filled his thermos with coffee and hauled everything out to the truck. He stopped in town long enough to gas up, pick up a road map, grab some cash at the bank and he was on his way.

He had never been out of the state of Wyoming before but he didn't even give it a second thought. L.D. had Jack and he was going to bring him home. He got up on the highway and headed south, pedal to the metal all the way. The only time he slowed down was going through towns. Out on the highway, he opened it up and prayed that no cops would stop him.

He pulled off the highway long enough to make a couple sandwiches, grab a drink of water and relieve himself and he was back on the road, eating as he drove. He was lucky – traffic was light, the weather was good and he made excellent time.

He experienced a range of emotions along the way. First he was angry. Furious that L.D. would do something like this. Then he got scared. What if L.D. had those men – not just bring Jack back to Texas – but hurt him? Jack could even be dead – or dying along side the road somewhere. Then he would get angry again. The main thing that drove him was determination. He'd find Jack, no matter where he was, he'd find him and if they hurt him – he'd make them pay! He fingered the extra shells in his jacket pocket. He'd make them pay if they hurt Jack – he'd make them pay good!

It was nearly twelve thirty when Ennis crossed into the Childress city limits. He didn't know what he was going to do but he had to keep going – he had to find Jack. He had in mind to stop at a phone booth to look up Newsome's address but as he drove through the main street in town, he spotted the large sign, "Newsome's Farm Machinery". He eyed it carefully as he drove by and noticed two vehicles parked in back. A big black Cadillac and a van. He drove around the block and glanced the place over from the back side and something strange caught his eye. There was a light on. What would somebody be doing there at this hour?

He pulled into the fast food place on the corner and stopped the truck. The place was empty with all the lights out. He got out, locked the truck and walked the short distance to the back of the Newsome's Farm Equipment. He stepped up to the back door and leaned his ear against it. He could hear voices. Someone was yelling. He made his way to a window and managed to see in between the blinds. Four people – one fat old man with a cigar puffing away and he was screaming at whoever was sitting in the chair in front of him; back to the window. The person sitting tried to get up out of the chair but was shoved back down by two rough looking thugs standing on either side of him. He had seen the back of the man's head. It was Jack all right – he was sure of it. Then he heard Jack's voice. "This is crazy! You can't make me do this!" The fat man nodded and the two thugs started slapping Jack around.

Ennis gritted his teeth then walked coldly back to his truck. He unlocked the door and from behind his seat and pulled out his hunting rifle. He reached in for some papers that were on the dash board and slipped a paperclip off one then closed the door and locked it again. In seconds he was at the back door and with a little jiggling of the bent out paperclip in the keyhole, he managed to spring the lock. He opened the door carefully and entered the darkened hall. He could hear the voices clearer now.

"You listen to me, Rodeo and you listen good. There ain't never been no divorces in my family and there ain't gonna be one now. You got a wife and a boy here and responsibilities. You can't just up and run off. If cock suckin' is that important to you, we can arrange for you to make some business trips to Mexico and get it out of your system. That ain't no reason to end a perfectly good marriage."

"I already told you … Lureen is all right with the divorce! We discussed it …" Jack pleaded.

"I don't give a shit who you discussed it with, boy. Now you just say the word and we'll get you cleaned up and you can go home to your wife and tell her you changed your mind."

"It ain't gonna happen, L.D.!" Jack was adamant.

"You got a choice here, Rodeo. You either go home to your wife or my boys here will mess you up so bad even your momma won't recognize you."

Everyone froze when they heard the rifle being cocked. Ennis stepped through the doorway into the room – the rifle pointing straight at L.D.

"Who the hell are you?" L.D. demanded.

"I'm the one who's gonna put a hole right in the middle of your fat gut if you don't tell your boys to take a walk right now."

"FUCK OFF!" L.D. yelled at Ennis.

Ennis lifted the rifle and fired into the display case right behind L.D.'s head. The sound exploded in the small room as glass shattered to the floor. Ennis walked around the side of the room, keeping his back to the wall, and motioned the two thugs towards the door. "Get out. I want to hear that van start up and drive away and you'd both better be in it or your boss here's gonna have an extra belly button – a big one!"

"Now there's no need for all of this. I'm just takin' care of a little family business here. What the hell business is it of yours anyway?"

"I'm makin' it my business." He cocked the rifle again and aimed it at the goons and said, "Git!" The two of them took off down the hall.

"They'll go for help. You'll never make it out of here. I know the sheriff …"

"Good! I hope they bring him. We'll see what he has to say about kidnapping people, takin' them across state lines. Ain't that a crime down here in Texas?"

"Who are you?" L.D. asked again.

Ennis ignored him but held the rifle pointed at the fat gut.

"Jack? You all right?"

"Yeah. How'd you find me?" Jack walked over to him, careful not to get between the rifle and L.D.

Ennis reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out his knife and flicked it open. Jack turned around and Ennis slit through the ropes.

"After the things you told me about this snake over here, I figured he'd be the only one dumb enough to try somethin' like this."

"Let's get out of here." Jack said and gave L.D. one last dirty look.

"You won't get away with this, Rodeo. I know where you live now. I'll just come get you again. And next time my boys will be armed." He threatened.

"And I'll know right where to come to find him!" Ennis pulled the trigger again and blew a hole in the top of the fine mahogany desk scattering papers everywhere. He then walked over to L.D. and slammed the butt of the gun into the fat gut. L.D. let out a out "oooooffff" and went to his knees.

"C'mon." Ennis said and grabbed Jack by the arm. They headed across the back lot, down between the buildings and hopped into the truck. Ennis shoved it in gear and they screeched rubber out of there.

"He's crazy! He's just plain off his rocker!" Jack was saying as he was holding on tight while Ennis made the corner that headed them out of town.

Ennis didn't say a word. He had the gas pedal to the floor board and didn't let up until they were out of Texas. Once across the border into Oklahoma he eased up some. He stopped at a small motel and went in to the office. He had Jack wait in the truck. He paid for the room and drove around to their room and parked. They went inside and locked the doors.

"You think he'll come after you again?"

"I don't know. I never figured him to do something so stupid as to come after me and drag me all the way back down here. I can't tell you how glad I was to see you come through that door, Cowboy."

Ennis placed the rifle on the table beside the bed and seized Jack. They clung together for several moments before either of them could speak.

"I knew you'd find me. I knew you'd come!" Jack whispered tearfully against Ennis' shoulder.

"You're mine, Jack Twist. We waited too Goddamned long to be together to let some fat bastard just waltz in there and take you away." Ennis gripped him so tightly Jack would have bruises in the morning but he didn't care. Both arms were wrapped around Ennis and he was holding on for dear life.

"I was scared, Ennis. I thought he was gonna kill me. But there wasn't no way I was gonna agree to go tell Lureen that I had made a mistake and that I wanted to go back to her. No way in hell!"

"I shoulda shot the bastard!"

"No! We don't want no trouble! I just wanna go home."

"Me too, Bud. We need to get some sleep first though. I ain't hardly closed my eyes since you been gone."

"Me neither. Does this place have a shower? I sure could use a shower." Jack said and pulled back a little bit.

"Yeah. Me too." Ennis agreed. "You go ahead. I'm gonna keep an eye out." He went over and took a seat next to the window and folded the curtain back enough to watch the parking lot.

"Ennis, I don't think he'll try that again at least not tonight. He probably ain't even caught his breath yet." Jack grinned trying to lighten the mood.

"I ain't takin' any chances, Jack. A man crazy enough to do a thing like that could do anything and he's got the money to back him up."

"All right." Jack said as he came over and squeezed Ennis' shoulder. "I'll shower first, and then I'll watch while you shower."

"Good idea." Ennis agreed as he watched a station wagon full of kids pull up in front of the office.

Jack took a shower; his entire body ached from the strain. While drying off he let out a little moan as the rough towel rubbed against his rope-burned wrists. Before he could draw another breath, Ennis was in the doorway, "You Ok?"

"Yeah. My wrists are sore is all.

Ennis placed the rifle on the sink and looked at Jack's wrists. "Fuckin' son of a bitch! I shoulda killed him! I will if he ever touches you again!"

"Ennis, we gotta let this go. We can't let it eat away at us. Everythin's goin' so well for us at home. I just need to be a little more careful about who I agree to take a test drive with."

"Huh?"

"The two of them, they come by the place and said they wanted to see the latest model F-150. I took 'em out and showed it to 'em. They acted like they were real interested so I took them for a test drive."

"You went with 'em?" Ennis' face screwed up in a severe frown.

"Sure I did. I do it all the time. When we got back we stopped beside their van and one of them got inside to get his checkbook, he said. I was leanin' against the van and talkin' with one fella when the one inside grabbed me from behind and shoved a cloth over my face. I tried to get it off but it had somethin' on it and in a minute everything went black. Next thing I knew, we was sailin' down the highway headin' south and I was tied up good."

"Soon as we get back you gotta quit that job!"

"No! I quit that job, we lose the ranch!" Jack wrapped the towel around his waist and came out into the other room – Ennis right behind him.

"It's too dangerous, Jack. You can't be gettin' into cars and trucks with people!"

"Ennis, I sell cars and trucks. It's what I do. I ain't quittin' my job!"

"I don't care if we lose the ranch. We'll find another place. Or you could find another job."

"Ennis, I'm so tired and I ache all over. Could we please just go to bed and discuss this after we both get some sleep?"

"You'll sit by the window and watch while I shower?" Ennis asked seeing that Jack was about to drop he let the argument about employment go for the time being.

"Yes. If that will make you happy, I'll sit by the window." Jack took the chair by the window and Ennis slipped his clothes off and took a quick shower.

After the shower he came out to find Jack sound asleep in the chair. Ennis took a good long look around outside and helped Jack into bed and climbed in beside him – Jack on one side the rifle on the other. In minutes they were both dead to the world.

Sunlight shining in around the edges of the drapes woke them the next morning and Ennis hurried around getting dressed.

"C'mon, Jack. Let's get on the road."

"Ennis, I'm hungry. Can we please grab some breakfast first?" Jack pleaded as he pulled his boots on. "Didn't we pass a Denny's just a bit back?"

"We don't need Denny's – takes too long. There's a drive-through across the way. We'll pick up some of those egg and biscuit things you like so much.

Jack sighed as he tucked in his shirt and fastened his belt. "Ok. Cowboy, drive-through it is. I just want to get home and get things back to normal as soon as we can."

"Me too. And we got some serious talkin' to do about your job." Ennis agreed.

They got two biscuits with eggs and sausage a piece plus orange juice and coffee and were on the highway heading north in less than thirty minutes.

"We'd still be sittin' and waitin' for our food if we ate at Denny's," Ennis commented around a bite of biscuit.

"Yeah, I know. Their food is usually worth the wait though." Jack sipped his orange juice.

"We need to get on home, Jack."

Jack nodded in agreement then asked, "So, soon as I didn't come home Friday night, you figured out what happened?"

"Nah. I went lookin' for you in town. Figured you was workin' late or havin' a beer with someone and lost track of time.

"I wouldn't a done that."

"I found your truck was still at the dealership and I sat there and waited until they opened the place up next mornin' and I talked with Mr. Callahan."

"Oh my God! What did he say? What did you say?"

"I said I was your partner out at the ranch and that I was lookin' for you. I told him your truck was still in the dealership parking lot and asked if he knew where you was."

"What'd he say?"

"He said he had no idea where you was and that it wasn't like you to just go off somewhere without tellin' nobody."

"Oh shit. I hope he don't fire me."

"Jack, I'm serious here – I think you should quit – find another job somewhere."

"I don't wanna quit, Ennis. I like my job and I like the people I work with."

"It ain't safe."

"It'd be as safe as anythin' else. I don't think L.D. is stupid enough to try anythin' like this again, knowin' he'd be runnin' into you and that gun. Besides, if he found me at the dealership, he could find me if I was workin' … in a library or somethin'."

"I don't like it!"

"Me neither, Ennis, but we gotta take whatever comes our way and make the best of it. Don't you see? You just did that! You found me when I was missin' and you brought me home. Whatever happens, Ennis, we'll take it and we'll keep on livin' our lives just like we was. There ain't nothin' nobody can do to change that."

"They could kill us!"

"They could but they won't. Not old L.D. He just figured to throw a scare into me and I'd crumble and do whatever he wanted like most of those smucks who work for him. He didn't figure me to have backbone enough to refuse him."

"He said next time he'd come with guns. I'm thinkin' maybe we should dump this deal we have with the bank and just take off somewhere else."

"NO! We ain't runnin'! We've got too much goin' for us in Sheridan. We got our jobs; we got us a nice house and a big piece of land. I don't want to leave and I don't think you do either."

"Yeah, we got all that now but what good is it if you get taken again? I tell you, Jack, I nearly died worryin' over you. I don't wanna hafta go through that again."

"You won't. I'll be more careful, I promise. And from now on, I won't even go on test rides with them. I'll just hand them the keys and let them take the truck for a ride. That's what Amanda does. She's the only woman salesman we got and she's real wary of strangers."

"You need to be like that."

"I will be from now on – I promise!"

They drove on in silence for a while and Ennis seemed to finally relax a bit the closer they got to home. They took turns driving and Ennis actually agreed to have lunch in a diner instead of fast food.

"I liked Mr. Callahan. He seemed nice." Ennis asked when they were back on the road again.

"I'll have to explain things to him – that my nutty ex-father in law shanghaied me and drug me back to Texas and I don't wanna go out on test drives no more."

"What does he know about me – about us?"

"He knows that I'm divorced and that I used to live in Texas but I was born and raised in Wyomin' and always wanted to move back up here. He knows that I have a partner goin' in on the ranch with me and that you're divorced with kids too."

"He ever ask you any questions? You know … questions you can't answer?"

"No, Ennis. He's not like that. He's a nice old guy. He don't butt into other people's business. Most people don't."

"You think he suspects? About you and me, I mean."

"I doubt it. He's just happy to have me around. I'm good at what I do, Ennis, and he sees that. And that's all that concerns him right now."

"He ever make any jokes or nasty remarks about … people like us?"

"No, Ennis. He wouldn't. He's just the nicest kind of guy and I like workin' for him."

"Well, if you think it's safe and you're promise to be careful, I guess there ain't no sense in quittin'."

Jack smiled and reached over and squeezed Ennis' arm. "You got my word on that, Cowboy. From now on, I just hand the customer the keys and they can make the test drives by themselves."

"Thank you. I feel much better about it, Bud." Ennis relaxed enough to smile a bit.

"I owe you big time for what you done, Cowboy. How about you? You like your boss at Safeway?"

"Mr. Leonard? I like him. He's stuck in that wheel chair of his and must have shit for a life but he's a good man to work for. He's fair and he don't put up with no nonsense from his employees."

"That's good."

"I like this job, Jack, and I aim to keep it. I ain't never had a job that paid this good plus I get lots of free food and we're gonna need all the money we can scrape together to come up with some stock next year."

"You think it'll take very long to get those pastures into shape?"

"Nah. Big problem there will be if we can get that tractor workin' or not. We gotta have a tractor."

"We can always buy one on credit."

"We might could but I don't want no more monthly payments than we have to. I'm thinkin' maybe I'll take one of them little heaters out into the barn and maybe work on the tractor some – see if I can figure out what it needs."

"Those clouds look like snow. It's gonna be freezin' in that barn. If you go out there to work, take both those heaters and maybe something to put down so the wind don't come in under the doors."

"Good to be back in Wyomin' again." Ennis said as they crossed the border into Wyoming.

"It sure is!" Jack agreed. "I can hardly wait to get home."

****

It was just passed midnight when they turned into their driveway. "Look, Ennis! It's snowin'!" Jack said as he rolled down his window and stuck his hand out catching some snowflakes.

He pulled up in front of the house and they sat there for a time looking at the Christmas tree lights through the window as the snow fell all around them.

"It's beautiful!" Jack whispered. "Looks like a Christmas card."

"Merry Christmas, Jack." Ennis choked out and caught the tear that had slipped down his cheek, with his shoulder. "Glad you're home, Bud."

Jack was in his arms then and they were both crying. They clung to one another and sat where they were until the cold settled in and they climbed out with a laugh at their sore muscles, cramped from so many hours on the road and went inside, locking the door and leaving the cold and the rest of the world behind them.

THE END

82


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